fdbjr Reviews

Wonka (2023)

The definition of Whimsical

[10/10 · 1 January 2024]

'Wonka' is simply a delight, the definition of whimsical, light as a feather and frothy with innocence. I write mostly to put some context with the 1971 version. That picture was a success, mostly due to a superb performance by Gene Wilder and three unforgettable songs (in otder, 'Candyman', 'I've Got a Golden Ticket' and 'Pure Imagination'.) But it had considerable flaws It began life as a promotion for a new line of candy. It was never properly financed - the scene designers did their best with a completely inadequate budger. Above all, there are several ham-handed, leaden sermons to the kids, about the dangers of tv watching, gum chewing, gluttony, and general selfishness. They're both unpleasant and boring. Oompa-loompa, indeed.

The songs in this movie are not nearly so good, but they are all at the service of really wonderful production numbers (there are none in the 1971 movie). The villainy and villains manage to be as delightfully funny as the heroes. The movie is superbly cast, with Timothee Chalamet surprisingly good as Wonka (he is not been in too many movies in which he exhibited lightness-of-touch), and the likes.of Olivia Colma, Hugh Grant, and Keegan-Michael Key perfect in their parts.

It's the best family movie in years. Roald Dahl would have disliked this thorughly, which only indicates what a triumph of innocent fun it is.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Another Practical Joke on the Audience

[4/10 · 1 January 2024]

This movie has lively production values, a good script (up to a point) and fine performances, but ultimately becomes a disappointing failure for the most banal reason of all. The plot is unresolved. The central question is whether the victim of the fall committed suicide or was pushed by his wife. Most of the action of the drama takes place in the trial of the mater, in Grenoble in France. Ultimately the wife on trial is acquitted of her husband's murder - THAT we do know. But was she in fact guilty? Did she get away with a homicide? The director/screenwriter does not see fit to tell us. You'll read plenty of reviews, both here and in professional reviews, that blandly conclude 'it's for the viewer to decide'.

Sorry . . . No. That's a perfectly reasonable conclusion in real life. In fact, in highly contested historical controversies, often it's the only responsible position. But this isn't real life or history. It's a movie, a story, a fiction told by a storyteller - and stories are supposed to have endings. You don't quit the tale with Cinderella about to try on the slipper and leave it to the reader to decide if it fits or not. Even in the superb 'Rashomon', the four different versions of the event are all rounded and complete. The uncertainty arises because the perspectives are so profoundly different. Here, however, the director/screenwriter, whether out of laziness or some screwed up notion of cinematic sophistication, simply fails to round out the narrative, The result is a frustrating audience experience, and an artistic failure, despite all the pluses.

Slow Horses (2022– )

Marred by The British Plot

[6/10 · 20 December 2023]

This series is worth watching because of Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, but it is marred fatally by reliance on what I call the British Plot. That's the plot in which the culprit turns out to be some institutional chief, in this case, the First and Second Desks of MI-5. That might have been startling forty years ago, but it has become standard and in fact the ONLY plot in the BBC. It gets old.

Worse. Although the reality is that intelligence agencies are plagued by too much loyalty to agents, in this case the head of MI-5 cheerfully orders the murder of agents and others, as if this wasn't a world in whcih a single phone call, or phone video, can bring a career to an end - can put you in prison. Come on. The reality is that high ranking bureaucrats are far more worried about Congressional and Parliamentary inquiries than they are about bureaucratic rivals. The notion that they would blithely take a chance on prison for the sake of a career advantage is simply absurd. It's not that I naively believe in good faith. It's that the risk-reward ratio in this fishbowl world isn't worth it, and ranking officers in the CIA and MI-5 know that well. Some actual reality would be welcome.

Malpractice (2023)

Credibility Disaster

[4/10 · 9 November 2023]

I watched about ten minutes of this show, until a credibility issue so disastrous showed up that made me disinterested in continuing.

A man armed with a pistol, waving it around, has invaded the ER. The heroine runs TOWARD the spot. (Already we're on thin ice.) A police officer warns her to keep back. Undaunted, she pushes the officer aside and races in to confront the armed man.

Are you kidding me? She knows nothing about the man. She knows nothing about the situation. She hasn't the slightest idea of the circumstances that led to this dilemma, or the immediate history, the motivation of the terrorist, etc., etc. But - boldly - SHE"s going to take charge and resolve the problem. Yeah. Sure.

No one in his or her right mind would behave like that, not even a doctor with a God complex. If you are going to do a drama that's supposed to be somewhat realistic, you might consider grounding it in reality.

I don't know what was coming next, but if this is going to be the level of common sense of the balance, count me out.

Sabrina (1995)

Heresy

[9/10 · 30 October 2023]

Call me a heretic (or irresponsible), but for my two cents, with one exception, the 1995 remake of Sabrina is an improvement in almost every way over the 1954 original. I'll begin with the color and style of the movie, move on to the more directly emotional script (this is a Cinderella story, after all, hardly a vehicle for subtle wit), and the minor cast - John Wood, Paul Giamatti, and others you would not normally find with names listed late in the cast.

But above all, there is the central casting. Harrison Ford is far better than the miscast Humphrey Bogart, and, surprisingly, Greg Kinnear over William Holden. You can believe Ford as the ultimate destination for the lovelorn Sabrina, in a way that was not possible with the overaged Bogart.

The one exception, of course, is Audrey Hepburn, who can't be replaced. But. Though a major loss, the overall improvements in the cast, photography, and script make the 1995 version a better movie.

Nine stars, as a protest against conventional wisdom.

Love at First Sight (I) (2023)

Exceptional Screenplay

[9/10 · 19 September 2023]

Most love stories devolve into rom coms through contrived situations, unnecessary complications, and so on. (Dare I mention the cynical sidekick?) This one, however, is the exception. It announces in the first scene that the subject is not love, but fate, and sticks to that throughout. The dialogue for the two principals is really good, lively and interesting, without devolving into wisecracks and rejoinders. The development of the 'fate' theme is entrusted largely to a ubiquitous narrator who keeps turning up in spot roles. Jameela Jamil is quite effective in the role.

The upshot is that the movie is much more successful and original than most in the genre. The cast is quite good, but I do believe the lion's share of the credit belongs to the screen writers, Kate Lovejoy and Jennifer Smith.

Battle of the Bulge (1965)

No Snow

[7/10 · 17 July 2023]

The dialog is good enough, if a bit wooden, but does a good job laying out the strategic elements of the campaign. Nonetheless, the movie is frustrating. There is no snow. The Battle of the Bulge was famously fought in a blizzard right before Christmas. This Battle of the Bulge is fought in springtime right before Easter. I can understand why the director of Thise Magnificent Men might have preferred locations. But this movie cried out to be made in studio swings in which experienced professionals could have approximated the historically accurate weather. As it is, too much of the movie is somewhat puzzling if not laughable.

Tom Jones (2023)

Lifeless

[5/10 · 5 May 2023]

The 1963 Tom Jones was a deserved classic, perfectly cast and well nigh perfectly adapted. But most of all it was fantastically high spirited, with wit and energy from the first frame. It caused me to read Fielding's novel, one of the great comic romps in English literature.

The inevitable concessions to the spirit of these times don't bother me in this version. But the utter lifelessness, the joylessness, the absence of humor and wit - that does. And making Sophie the narrator and center of wisdom is just absurd. Fielding's Sophie, wonderfully portrayed by Susannah York on the movie, is a smart, but youthful ingenue, beginning her own life's journey (to be sure, with many fewer options than a young man of that v era). Giving her preternatural insight doesn't work.

In short, another BBC disaster. You'd think one of these days the writers and directors who do these things will figure out that you can't slip a little sermon into these classics and have them survive. Not yet, evidently.

The Diplomat (II) (2023– )

The British Plot - Again

[2/10 · 24 April 2023]

I watched this, because of its stellar cast and rather solid dialog, believing that it was a solid exercise in spy and diplomatic suspense, rooted to some extent in the reality of contemporary politics. Then - in the last minutes of the last episode - it turns out it's the British plot -again.

In case you haven't been following, along about 2005, the BBC apparently decided that there were no actual terrorists, spies, or actual foreign agent. Instead. EVERY story inevitably resolves to the fiendish scheme of some upper crust Establishment politician or financier, usually with politics with which the writer is in strong disagreement, It gets very, very old. In the year 2023, it has become a tiresome cliche, and this very promising drama descends to it. Yawn. I call this the British plot, and it has consumed the genre.

Do the writers, producers, director, etc., think there is anything the least bit original in this at this point in time? There isn't.

A waste of time.

Inheritance (I) (2020)

Incredibly Bad

[1/10 · 3 February 2023]

This is one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen, with the principal character, - an impossibly young Lily Collins - making one stupid decision after another, to a degree that would embarrass a middle schooler. The premise of the plot borders on the laughably inane. The plot 'twist' os so transparently obvious that you become impatient for revelation. The rather well-regarded cast must have taken on the script for the opportunity it gave them to chew scenery, which they all seized with gusto. I was tricked into watching this fiasco by an idiot opinion piece on my Chrome feed, and was lured into finishing it by a sort of morbid fascination. . . It can't be this bad . . . Can it? Can it? Yes . . . It can.

Ridley Road (2021)

Unhistorical

[20 August 2022]

I write to endorse the views of another reviewer of this series as to its basic unhistoricality. The BBC and major US media providers are showing an increasing tendency to disregard the actual historical events and cultural realities, in the interest of importing entirely unrealistic racial, ethnic, and cultural themes artificially into those times. Lest anyone suspect my sympathies, I also lived through the 60's and my wife is Jewish, her entire family lost to the Holocaust and other anti-Semitic atrocities of World War II.

Plainly put, there was no widespread Fascist movement in either the US or Great Britain in 1962. Does anyone seriously think that the British constabulary, less than two decades after World War II, in which many fought and had comrades died, would have any sympathy at all for a British Nazi Party? The prosaic fact is that they had none at all.

In the US, George Lincoln Rockwell, the American Nazi, had a following in the dozens. To be sure, in the American South, society clung to an increasingly outdated racial bigotry. But it was increasingly under attack by larger forces. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' won the Pulitzer Prize that year, and the Civil and Voting Rights Acts were passed just two years later.

A drama about Fascist movements that emphasized their aberrance and potential criminality might be acceptable. However, the notion that they had any widespread social appeal is not only incorrect, but slanderous, and somewhat dangerous in itself. You don't redo history simply because it's convenient,.

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Entertaining, Despite Not Having an Iota of Intelligence

[6/10 · 13 June 2022]

Jurassic Whatever is an entertaining popcorn movie. I liked the hair-raising escapes, jaws snapping , and so on. The movie must set some sort of record for near misses. The characters are all familiar and pleasant, the actors competent, and I had a good time with it. It would be a big mistake, however, to try to make sense out of the plot, because there isn't any. (It is particularly obnoxious that the villain, played by Campbell Scott, is dispatched (by the dinosaurs, of course) in almost exactly the same way.as the Wayne Knight character in the original Jurassic Park.) Enjoying the movie - which I did, thus the six stars - requires not only a suspension of disbelief, but of intelligence, critical judgment, memory, and all sorts of other higher mental functions. Good luck.

Midwest (2018)

Interesting Short Subject

[8/10 · 28 April 2022]

The limited budget with which this short film was made is obvious. But the script is quite creative, the actors are youthful and energetic, and the production makes an excellent impression. This IS a high school fil, made by adolescents. But there is a real spark here, and I hope we have not heard the last of them.

Sanditon (2019–2023)

Uncharitable Exactitude - 'the word 'Boycott'

[9/10 · 25 April 2022]

I rather like this series, although it is certainly not Jane Austen. HOWEVER, the stickler in me compels me to note . . .

A significant theme in the second season is Georgianna's campaign to 'boycott' sugar in the interest of ending slavery. This in 1820.

In fact, the word 'boycott' did not enter the English language until 1880, as the result of tactics employed by Irish nationalists against one Charles Cunningham Boycott, at the suggestion of Parnell.

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Missing Five Years

[9/10 · 22 April 2022]

Charlie Wilson's War is a pretty good movie, as others have stated. I am writing to correct some of the political nonsense written below about the movie.

The main point to correct is that the Taliban emerged as a result of the collapse of Afghanistan. Ah . . . No . . . Seven years passed, between 1989 and 1996, during which the Bush and Clinton Administrations completely ignored Afghanistan. The Taliban ended up filling the vacuum, not without furious resistance from the Afghani people. None of that had to happen. To attribute it to the American assistance to the mujahideen a decade earlier is absurd.

The other misconception is that there is any moral equivalence between today's world, terrorist or not, and the world in which the Soviet Unilon existed. It truly was an Evil Empire, as those of us who lived through it can attest. The CIA action in Afghanistan was not a primary cause for its sudden collapse - there were many - but it was significant.

Finally,. George Crile's book, of the same name, is really solid. Crile was a 60 Minutes producer, on the other side of the aisle politically from Wilson. He lucked into the story while producing a 60 Minutes story about the mujahideen. Charlie Wilson was not only right wing, but maybe the most corrupt Congressman in Congress. (The movie whitewashes him). That such a man could become a major factor in world history is incredible. It's an amazing story, and the book is well worth the read. The movie handles it with a lighter touch than the reality (it plays as a comedy), but the story is largely true.

This was one of the CIA's brighter moments, as hard as it is for some to accept. The mistakes and misjudgments that led to the rise of the Taliban were another thing altogether.

Severance (2022– )

Absurd Premise

[3/10 · 22 February 2022]

'Severance' does have a good cast and there is a morbid fascination to watching the mystery unfold. But, 'like 'The Purge' or 'Squid Game', the premise is so preposterously dystopian that it becomes nightmare fantasy - and who wants to experience that? Like 'The Purge', which I guess is supposed to illustrate some horrible aspects of American society, but which no one outside of the producers would ever do, there is no one in any conceivable reality that would undergo the procedure, no physicians who would undertake it, and - ahem - no corporate management that would ever adopt it.

So what's the point? There isn't any, except for some totally out-of-touch filmmakers that think this nonsense is valid social commentary. Thus, the three stars.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Completely Misconceived

[2/10 · 30 December 2021]

The novel 'Nightmare Alley' is a cult classic for a reason. It's the story of the gradual destruction of a naive hustler, under the weight of his own deceptions and with the connivance of a 'therapist who's even more vicious than he is. The morbidly fascinating story was done acceptably in 1947 with Tyrone Power, though slightly spoiled by an artificially happy ending., When I read that Guillermo del Toro was doing a version with Bradley Cooper, I was really excited. The match of material and artist seemed perfect.

Instead, the movie is a disaster. Instead of the uninhibited, naturally talented, but naive hustler, we have a sociopathic killer fleeing from patricide. Instead of the gradual descent into geekdom by the weight of the lifestyle, we have multiple homicides and suicides, none of which are in the original and all of which conflict with the theme. The morbid fascination of the original becomes dull and banal.

It is amazing to me that men as talented as these could so totally misunderstand and misconceive the fascinating appeal of the source material. But that's what happened. The movie is a major disappointment, and actually should not have the name of the novel.

Love Hard (2021)

Unnecessary Shots

[5/10 · 16 December 2021]

This charming, but rather ordinary, romantic comedy, was totally ruined for me by the unnecessary, Woke , demonization of the song 'Baby, It's Cold Inside'. You have to be totally tin-eared not to realize that the Mouse is fully aware that she is being seduced by the Wolf (Frank Loesser's names for the two characters) and hugely enjoying the playing of her part. But tin-eared the Woke are. The heroine gravely denounces the song as 'rapey' (it isn't), with which assessment the terminally passive hero agrees. At the end of the film, the song is redeemed by rewriting the Wolf lyric to the point of actual meekness. So far from seducing, he doesn't even express much interest. Any number of sensible feminists have ridiculed the heroine's pretentious earnestness. I add my own voice to the chorus, and note that romantic comedies in which the hero is so polite that he becomes disinterested have some real problems.

Dopesick (2021)

Nice Production Values, - Really, Really Dumb

[5/10 · 27 October 2021]

I enjoyed the show in terms of action (always like Michael keaton) and the basic look of the show. It is marred, however, by the fact that it is unbelievably stupid. Somehow the writers-producers have convinced themselves that oxycontin was the analog of cocaine or heroin - a highluy addictive drug with no pharmaceutical value whatsoever, (Note the one hysterical review that describes the Sackler family as 'pure eviul'.

The one small problem is that oxycontin has considerable pharmaceutical value. It is a very powerful analgesic, and - like all powerful analgesics - has a considerable potential for abuse. So does Vicodin. So does Percocet. So, for that matter, does Tylenol. But this determination to show only the addictive potential leads to absolutely ludicrous drama. Thus, in the third episode, the comparatively recent medical emphasis on treatment of pain somehow becomes . . . Sinister. You gotta watch those awful docs who want to make their patients comfortable. The ten point pain scale, which is used in every ER and out patient center in the country, becomes a fiendish device developed by drug comapnies to entrap the unwary. Gimme a break

In the stupidest scene, an FDA agent who has undergone prostate surgery in extreme pain, declines oxycontin, which might actually help, and insists on Tylenol. I surely do hope this didn't happen in real life, that this guy wasn't fool enough to turn down a really good pain reliever, and roll around in agony, because he's afraid of the consequences from using the drug appropriately. And I hope unwary viewers don't do the same dumb thing., If it hurts that bad, for heaven's sake, take the prescription. Just be careful.

The opioid epidemic is serious, but it would be far better to look at the social conditions that produce a huge number of people prone to an addictive life style. Pretending that the drug was unleashed simply to addict people is ridiculous. It has considerable potency as a pain reliever which is exactly why it is capable of abuse. To treat oxycontin as a purely addictive substance, and the recent emphasis by the medical profession on pain relief as suspicious and sinister, is just plain dumb. But that's what the show does.

The Last Duel (2021)

Correcting the Record - Rashomon? No. 'Woke'? No.

[8/10 · 19 October 2021]

I saw this movie the other night, and liked it quite a bit. The actors were very good, and the story well told and interesting. I am reviewing more to correct two misconceptions in other reviews.

First, the comparison to 'Rashomon' can only be made by viewers who have never seen 'Rashomon'. That movie is an 80 minute work of genius in which the same incident is described by four different witnesses, in such a way that it is impossible to ascertain what is the truth. This movie is not that. While there are multiple narrators, the central events of the plot are not disputed. The multiple narrators do have different perspectives, reactions, and attitudes, but the reality of the events is not challenged.

Second, the movie is not slanted to conform to contemporary mores ('woke'). I'd view it as a failure if it were. But the depiction of the status of women in the 14th Century seemed to me accurate, particularly in the acceptance of rape as a fact of female life, and the difficulties of credibility. The dynamic of the character played by Matt Damon, who is fiercely loyal to his wife (good), but based on a territorial imperative that most (but not all) modern women would find unacceptable, is particularly striking.

All in all, a pretty good movie.

Cruella (2021)

Another Live Action Fiasco

[3/10 · 30 May 2021]

This utterly joyless, laughless, lifeless, consistently mean-spirited movie continues the disastrous run Disney has had with its attempt to convert the classic animated movies into live action vehicles.

I could say it's the worst, except that 'Dumbo' exists. The best that can be said for this epochal failure is that it isn't that bad. But that is pretty faint praise.

The Woman in the Window (2021)

Good Exposition . . .

[5/10 · 16 May 2021]

. . . and the production values are excellent. The movie looks terrific. The exposition sets up the audience for a reversal that is quite effective, But then . .

it completely falls apart in the last 30 minutes. A number of significant events happen off screen, narrated, and make no sense on terms of character arc. (I actually watched it again, thinking I'd missed something. But I hadn't.) You get a distinct impression that this movie was meant to be 45 minutes longer than it is.

As it is, a descent into a chaotic mess. Very uncharacteristic of Joe Wright.

The Haunting (1963)

The Most Frightening Movie Ever

[10/10 · 28 October 2020]

There is no violence in The Haunting, and no monster. No startle scares, none of the effects that devotees of slasher films eat up. There is only a superb cast, superb direction, occasional quotes from Shirley Jackson's magnificent prose, and that eerie, unsettling score. I'm avoiding spoilers, so let me simply say that the story involves an exploration of an allegedly haunted house by a professional skeptic and three 'sensitives' recruited for the purpose. The result is a flawless, atmospheric movie that scares the bejeezus out of you.

As a point of trivia, Robet Wise, the epitome of a Hollywood craftsman, directed this movie between 'West Side Story' and 'The Sound of Music.

Utopia (2020)

Repulsive Level of Violence

[1/10 · 25 October 2020]

I watched the first episode of this show because of John Cusack's reputation. Whatever its merits, I found the level of gratuitous violence so off the charts that I gave up, skipping to the last episode just to find out what Cusack's tole actually was. (He plays an evil drug merchant who spreads a virus, simply so a vaccine will be required that has the side effect of sterilizing the fertile element of the population. Great . . . just great . . . exactly the propaganda point the world needs right now.)

The first episode featured a couple of sociopaths murdering everyone who has come into contact with a mysterious comic book, mass murdering some innocents in a hotel room by persuading them to accept voluntarily injections of poison (are you serious?), then systematically shooting innocents in hotel rooms with the successful plan of framing a man with a history of mental illness. Of course, they go completely undetected as they stroll from floor to floor.

Who needs this? There's enough real sociopathy in the world. There just isn't a plot elegant enough to justify this stomach-turning nonsense. Another assault by Amazon on civic standards.

Good Morning, Verônica (2020–2024)

Sickening Exercise in Torture Porn

[1/10 · 9 October 2020]

Don't kid yourself. The reason people watch this disgrace isn't for great acting or plot twists. It's because of one explicit scene of sado-masochistic horror after another - young female victims pleading for mercy as they are hoisted up, butcher style, to be raped and mutilated. (I only watched the first scene, but the synopsis and a couple of spot checks verified this.)

An absolute disgrace. Avoid.