D+ Documentary Directed by Liz Marshall A Bay Area tech startup called Upside Food is working to help the environment and end animal cruelty. They take tissue from living animals (cows, chicken, ducks and others), and grow the meat in test tubes and petri dishes. Few living animals are involved, and none are slaughtered. For … Continue reading Dinner from the petri dish may be coming with Meat the Future
Category: Reviews
Opposites attrack in Compartment No. 6
B romantic road movie Written by Andris Feldmanis & Juho Kuosmanen, from the novel by Rosa Liksom Directed by Juho Kuosmanen You don't expect a romantic road movie to come out of Russia - but then the director is Finnish. Two people are thrown together on a train. At first, they hate each other…or at … Continue reading Opposites attrack in Compartment No. 6
The Pact: Nothing poetic
C drama Written by Christian Torpe, from Thorkild Bjørnvig's memoir Directed by Bille August There's nothing cinematic about writing poetry. It's not like painting or composing music. Unless the poet reads their work aloud, the audience doesn't experience it. There's little reading aloud in The Pact. Instead of the art of poetry, the filmmakers managed … Continue reading The Pact: Nothing poetic
Shortbus is funny, serious, and very sex-positive
B+ sexual romance Written & directed by John Cameron Mitchell Jon Cameron Mitchell created a funny, serious, sexual, and asexual movie, and gave it the seemingly ridiculous title Shortbus. It contains a considerable amount of hardcore sex (mostly male-on-male). But it mostly deals with the emotional issues connected with sex - along with the emotional … Continue reading Shortbus is funny, serious, and very sex-positive
Who We Are & why this country is so messed up
A Documentary Directed by Emily Kunstler & Sarah Kunstler Jeffery Robinson's powerful documentary, Who We Are - A Chronicle of Racism in America, should be shown in every school in this country. Perhaps, just maybe, it would help understand our racial problems. When the movie started, my first response was "Am I going to be … Continue reading Who We Are & why this country is so messed up
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn?
D- No real genre Written and Directed by Radu Jude This film starts with hardcore porn. A very happily-married couple are doing just about everything and enjoying it immensely. And yes, the sex is real. Unfortunately, in the fiction of the movie, that video was caught on the husband's smartphone, and somehow, it got onto … Continue reading Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn?
Lucille Ball and the hard work of comedy
B drama about comedy Written and Directed by Aaron Sorkin You've probably heard the saying "Death is easy; comedy is hard." In Being the Ricardos, writer/director Aaron Sorkin shows you just what that means (but not often enough). Going back to the early days of television, Sorkin shows the sweat in making comedy in the … Continue reading Lucille Ball and the hard work of comedy
Julia Child and French Cooking
B documentary Directed by Julie Cohen & Betsy West I didn't really want to watch or review this documentary about Julia Child. Why? First of all, current cinema is overflowing with documentaries about the lives of famously beloved people. If you're not a fan of the subject, the movie doesn't mean much. And I've never … Continue reading Julia Child and French Cooking
My Name Is Pauli Murray
B Historical documentary Directed by Julie Cohen & Betsy West I hadn't even heard of Pauli Murray until very recently. Either I'm the only person who missed one of the most important people of 20th-century America, or almost everyone else has missed her, too. Either way, documentarians Julie Cohen and Betsy West are trying to … Continue reading My Name Is Pauli Murray
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
B+ Musical comedy Written by Tom MacRae & Dan Gillespie Sells Jonathan Butterell Have you noticed that with Hamilton, In the Heights, The Prom (unfortunately overlooked), and Spielberg's upcoming remake of West Side Story, musicals seem to be a thing, again. Now we've got another one, this time from Britain, and if it's no masterpiece, … Continue reading Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
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