Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Movies

It's been quite a while since I gave any movie reports. Here I will give a brief synopsis/recommendation about the recent movies that we have watched lately. (The stars denote my rating out of 5 possible stars)

"Promises" - **** Documentary featuring interviews with Palestinian and Israeli children ages 11-13. This movie was interesting on several levels: 1. helped me understand the Palestine/Israel situation much better (I'm pitiful with current events) 2. gave the viewpoints of both sides of the conflict through the eyes of children. 3. interesting study of how children form their own ideologies and how those can change over time with age, experience, maturity. I recommend this one.

"Walk the Line" - *** The story of Johnny Cash focusing primarily on his struggle with drugs and romance with June Carter. June's portrayal does show her faith in God and attempt to keep moral standards in her life (though imperfect).

"Jarhead" - ** Troubling war movie about Operation Desert Storm focusing on the boredom and futility that many of the troops felt. Not recommended.

"Bubble" - **** Quirky movie set in small town USA with novice actors who were cast locally. It was an interesting experiment. Not necessarily the kind of movie that would appeal to most people, but I liked it.

"Nine Lives" - **** This was a very interesting movie. Nine vignettes featuring a female lead character who is in a crisis moment of her life. All of the scenes were about 15 minutes that were shot in one continuous take. The stories connect slightly with a couple of the characters showing up in another scene. However, there is NOT a big secret plot there with hidden meaning, so don't worry trying to find it.

"13 Conversations About One Thing" - **** This is one that I had seen before, but Denis had not. Very thought-provoking. This one does have an over-arching story that emerges through the various plot lines. All the scenes contain conversation about the source/meaning/possibility of happiness.

Please let me know if you decide to watch any of them. I would love to read your take as well. Also, please research for any potentially offensive material as my standards are likely different from yours.

4 comments:

kristina said...

I haven't seen any of these movies except Walk the Line (my friends were worried about me watching this one because I hate adultery). I recently saw Pieces of April - wasn't that one you had recomemded? It was good anyway.

Tracy said...

Yes, it was one of the ones that I recommended. I'm glad you liked it. I was just looking at Netflix to come up with this list and saw that you were finally up to seeing the 4 movies that I had told you about. :o) I hope you like them all.

kristina said...

I just watched "You can count on me" was that one of your recommended? It was good. Made me think of my brother and cry. Do you have any siblings? I can't remember if I asked you that.

Tracy said...

That movie was simply fabulous. Did you happen to listen to the commentary track? Denis gets terribly bored with those, but I have found some of them very interesting. Particularly ones that are director/screenwriter combos (you know, same person wrote and directed the movie) as this one was. He told stories of how the storyline came together, how he chose the actors, how he decided how to shoot the scenes. All kinds of interesting tidbits.

Yes, I have one older brother. He lives in Ohio now. He moved there 3 years ago to attend seminary. We were close when we were little kids, but now we don't communicate very well. My sister-in-law is a great moderator... :o)