dolce's Official Reviews: (All Reviews Have Been Deleted)
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zennier
htm
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:38 pm
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Location: berkeley
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Little Fish looks great - possibly an early Oscar contender?
Even though films like LF seem to go quite unnoticed, we've seen an interesting trend with the Oscars actual picking the quality performances over the popular ones. (at least for nomination)
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| Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:09 pm |
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zennier
htm
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:38 pm
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Location: berkeley
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 dolcevita wrote: dolcevita wrote:
Undoubtedly the film that launched Federico Fellini into the world stage spotlight, La Strada will always lurk in the shadows of the two Fellini films that followed it and never truly get the attention and recognition it so rightly deserves...The face of Giulietta Masina’s Gelsomina should be witnessed the world over for its potency. As the mute and slightly challenged Gelsomina, her facial gestures narrate the woman’s experience as no others have done before. Married away for a mere pittance to Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a circus traveling strongman, the couple travels the countryside roads performing for villagers...
...In typical later Fellini fashion, Federico externalizes the internal and internalizes the external. All the raw and depleted environments Gelsomina explores with Zampano become part of her. Zampano and his actions become part of her as well. In return her internal struggle becomes more external as it plays out on her face and across the screen...
...Rough around the edges but sincere in its simplicity and lack of superfluous embellishments, La Strada may not be Fellini’s magnum opus but it is definitely one of his most sincere and strongest works.
Indeed, La Strada was rough around the edges. The grandeur and style of La Dolce Vita was sorely missed here, but that's to be expected considering the film was made in a depressed postwar Italy. La Strada wasn't exceptional, but just a mark above the rest. I'm starting to gather that most Fellini films lack focus and certainly challenge the viewer, but that wasn't the case here. I wasn't as interested as I hoped to be and I found the characters less than inspiring. Masina was a highlight with her understated performance as a girl was brilliant, but I still wasn't extremely impressed. Hopefully Nights of Cabiria, the next film on my Fellini discovery tour, offers more in the style of La Dolce Vita.
B.
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| Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:16 pm |
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dolcevita
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Night of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita rival for my two most favorite Fellini films. :-)
Tsotsi
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/Tsotsi.php
Quote: <i>Tsotsi</i> unfolds in three different visions, and they don’t always work well together. The grit of Lance Gewer’s cinematography illuminates poverty and density in one of the largest cities in the world, and it harkens back to Cesar Charlone’s magnum opus, the 2002 <i>Cidade de Deus</i>. Yet the overriding story keeps reminding us that <i>Tsotsi</i> ultimately lacks a sharp bite. Its best to enter the theatre with expectations akin to American big-budget dramas.
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| Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:44 pm |
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zennier
htm
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:38 pm
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Location: berkeley
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Didn't you find Masina's age distracting? She pulled off the role, but I couldn't help but notice she was my mother's age, not a school girl. It bothered me somewhat, but I tried to think of it as a positive aspect. She did, after all, pull off an above average performance.
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| Sun Mar 05, 2006 4:03 pm |
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dolcevita
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The Circle
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/Circle.php
Quote: All the women crave cigarettes but are not allowed to smoke in public. Regardless of their stress and abuse and the willingness of vendors to sell them they heavenly sticks, the women are constantly denied lighting up. The impact is twice-fold. Firstly because Panahi uses the narrative device in order to heighten the sense of the women’s constant vigilance and wariness of police and citizen surveillance against the public’s emphasis on “moral†social habits. Secondly, the teased women’s cravings express their own desire to implode and find solace within a mere two minutes of lonely puffing.
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| Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:11 am |
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dolcevita
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Thank You for Smoking
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/ ... moking.php
Quote: <i>Thank You for Smoking</i> is tough to palate. It condemns and ridicules the smoking industry but also defends its right to exist. It has faith in parental guidance but focuses on the middle-class family structure as its guide. Still, it’s a far wittier dialogue with an occasional outright laugh that also manages to grapple with heated topics. The combination, even if you disagree with the position, is a fresh of breath air, and worth checking out if for nothing more than a giggle and a springboard for dialogue.
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:47 pm |
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makeshift
Teenage Dream
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:20 am
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A-, eh? I can't freakin' wait. I was thinking about holding off and not seeing it when I go down to California, but I think I will now. Brick and this are going to eat up almost an entire day. Hopefully it'll be worth it.
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:49 pm |
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andaroo1
Lord of filth
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:47 pm
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All the best satires work both ways.
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:51 pm |
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dolcevita
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andaroo wrote: All the best satires work both ways. Its true. When I went to imdb for character name spellings, etc, I was startled at how porrly it was received. I think people got the message that it was "ok to smoke," or encourage tobacco use in children. But I thing the bottom line was that it might not be up to the government, but to parents and the community, to inform their children about health, religion, or anything else. I do not think the movie ultimately supported smoking *spoilers* as Nick makes some decisions at the end *as a parent* and not *as a lobbyist* that condemn smoking *end spoilers* I also don't see how the steady flow of jabs at death toll and product placement, etc could be taken as anything other than a statement about how lethal cigarettes are. Still, its one's choice to drink or smoke regardless, right? Wrong? I think this film is intelligent because its a springboard to those questions, and does ultimately get one thinking.
Makeshift, andaroo, let me know what you guys thought once you see, I'd love to hear from you.
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:58 pm |
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Libs
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Ahhhhh. I want to see Thank You for Smoking so much, but it's only playing in Georgetown, which is too much of a hassle to get to.
I'll wait until it expands next weekend.
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:11 pm |
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Bradley Witherberry
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dolcevita wrote: The combination, even if you disagree with the position, is a fresh of breath air... "Fresh of breath air"? What have you been smoking, dv?
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:18 pm |
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dolcevita
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bradley witherberry wrote: dolcevita wrote: The combination, even if you disagree with the position, is a fresh of breath air... "Fresh of breath air"? What have you been smoking, dv?  I swear I'm dyslexic and its gone unnoticed for decades...  Sent a pm to Karl, he'll fix it up for me.
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| Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:48 pm |
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dolcevita
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V for Vendetta
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/VforVendetta.php
Quote: Mr. McTeigue and the Wachowskis need to sit down and learn to extract meaning from historical and religious content, not just slap allusions to the Third Reich and the Tuskegee Experiments up on the big screen. Just because their references are easily legible doesn’t mean V for Vendetta has a shred of gravity to it.
I’d venture so far as to say the condescending and overly simple references to totalitarian regimes and vigilante justice are insulting to an audience who is supposed to be watching a story about media control and “the peoples†sudden removal of proverbial blindfolds.
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| Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:16 pm |
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Goldie
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dolcevita wrote: V for Vendettahttp://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/VforVendetta.phpQuote: Mr. McTeigue and the Wachowskis need to sit down and learn to extract meaning from historical and religious content, not just slap allusions to the Third Reich and the Tuskegee Experiments up on the big screen. Just because their references are easily legible doesn’t mean V for Vendetta has a shred of gravity to it.
I’d venture so far as to say the condescending and overly simple references to totalitarian regimes and vigilante justice are insulting to an audience who is supposed to be watching a story about media control and “the peoples†sudden removal of proverbial blindfolds. One question - was this movie ever suppose to be about media control? The head guy was only in hiding.
**************************
and looking at some quotes from the movie - what are wrong with these basic ideas that were being talked about
* Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.
* People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
* Fear became the ultimate tool of this government.
******************************
and on your ending paragraph.............. do you have any idea why so many people feel opposite of this - as this movie is 75 + or higher everywhere > here at KJ, on RT, on IMDB, etc. Could you have missed something?
There’s little left to say about this sugary concoction that aspires to profundity. It doesn’t look good, its characters are flat and uninteresting, and its dialogue and imagery treat the audience like idiots. To say V for Vendetta has a philosophy, agenda, or explores a serious topic would be giving its montage of cliché imagery and well-known historic legibility too much credit. It is two hours of mindless fluff promenading as a work of philosophical integrity.
Grade: D
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| Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:02 pm |
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getluv
i break the rules, so i don't care
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 4:28 pm
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Galia's review reinstates why I think the Wacko brothers are all talk and no brains. The reason why many people have liked these films comes from the same people who think the SAW franchise are quality films, when in fact they are mindless attempts at being intellectual. I can't see V until it opens in another 10 days in Oz, but to me this will go down the same road as THE MATRIX, interesting ideas with some shock scenes to make you feel your watching something worthwhile.
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| Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:56 am |
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Bradley Witherberry
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Okay, I'm the guy that is usually arguing that you can't argue opinion - but in the case of dv's review, I've got to make an exception.
A D for V for Vendetta?!? Based on the focus of dv's review on the background setting of a totalitarian society, rather than on the foreground story of V and Evey, I can only suspect that there is a political or psychological motive in dv's pan. Now, having read her insightful reviews on assorted challenging foreign and independent films over the past couple of years, I tend to suspect that this motive is not a vendetta against the film, but rather a subconscious one. And in my mind, that's a good thing - it only makes reading her reviews in future more intriguing to see when and how this previously unrevealed side of dv will next spring up...
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| Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:26 am |
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dolcevita
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bradley witherberry wrote: Okay, I'm the guy that is usually arguing that you can't argue opinion - but in the case of dv's review, I've got to make an exception.
A D for V for Vendetta?!? Based on the focus of dv's review on the background setting of a totalitarian society, rather than on the foreground story of V and Evey, I can only suspect that there is a political or psychological motive in dv's pan. Now, having read her insightful reviews on assorted challenging foreign and independent films over the past couple of years, I tend to suspect that this motive is not a vendetta against the film, but rather a subconscious one. And in my mind, that's a good thing - it only makes reading her reviews in future more intriguing to see when and how this previously unrevealed side of dv will next spring up...  That's mostly because the foreground story wasn't all that creative either. It was a tacky Phantom-esque love story, where the young woman ends up falling head over heels for someone who abused her twice over (the first time tried to lock her away for the year, the second time with the faux government torture). It was also...painfully predictable, cliche, and had poor dialogue. :-)
I wouldn't go so far as to say it was subconscious, either. Its quite conscious. You've got to do more than allude to important events to get me to take you seriously. I can find me a couple of facts and deliver some glossy remakes of old pictures from the ready-reference internet too. You need to show me you have one inkling of understanding or imagination around why those facts came to be. McTiegue didn't exactly do that, and frankly, I doubt he's even thought about it.
At least I'm not holding a vendetta, which would make it a bit too much like my current film nemesis.
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| Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:24 am |
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Bradley Witherberry
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dolcevita wrote: bradley witherberry wrote: Okay, I'm the guy that is usually arguing that you can't argue opinion - but in the case of dv's review, I've got to make an exception.
A D for V for Vendetta?!? Based on the focus of dv's review on the background setting of a totalitarian society, rather than on the foreground story of V and Evey, I can only suspect that there is a political or psychological motive in dv's pan. Now, having read her insightful reviews on assorted challenging foreign and independent films over the past couple of years, I tend to suspect that this motive is not a vendetta against the film, but rather a subconscious one. And in my mind, that's a good thing - it only makes reading her reviews in future more intriguing to see when and how this previously unrevealed side of dv will next spring up... That's mostly because the foreground story wasn't all that creative either. It was a tacky Phantom-esque love story, where the young woman ends up falling head over heels for someone who abused her twice over (the first time tried to lock her away for the year, the second time with the faux government torture). It was also...painfully predictable, cliche, and had poor dialogue. :-) I wouldn't go so far as to say it was subconscious, either. Its quite conscious. You've got to do more than allude to important events to get me to take you seriously. I can find me a couple of facts and deliver some glossy remakes of old pictures from the ready-reference internet too. You need to show me you have one inkling of understanding or imagination around why those facts came to be. McTiegue didn't exactly do that, and frankly, I doubt he's even thought about it. At least I'm not holding a vendetta, which would make it a bit too much like my current film nemesis. I notice that you rated Titanic a C, so I'm imagining that you're something of an anti-romantic, or at the very least your taste doesn't run to melodrama. This prevented you from enjoying the poetry of the dialogue, and caused you to interpret cruel to be kind parental love as abuse.
I understand that you are consciously rationalizing your dislike of the movie (in your usual impeccably logical style - yet, in a suspiciously extensive manner in the other review thread in this forum...), however, you aren't fooling me - I will be continuing my field observations of your subconscious motivations...
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| Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:06 am |
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dolcevita
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bradley witherberry wrote: - I will be continuing my field observations of your subconscious motivations... I suddenly feel naked.
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| Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:00 am |
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Goldie
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dolcevita wrote: bradley witherberry wrote: Okay, I'm the guy that is usually arguing that you can't argue opinion - but in the case of dv's review, I've got to make an exception.
A D for V for Vendetta?!? Based on the focus of dv's review on the background setting of a totalitarian society, rather than on the foreground story of V and Evey, I can only suspect that there is a political or psychological motive in dv's pan. Now, having read her insightful reviews on assorted challenging foreign and independent films over the past couple of years, I tend to suspect that this motive is not a vendetta against the film, but rather a subconscious one. And in my mind, that's a good thing - it only makes reading her reviews in future more intriguing to see when and how this previously unrevealed side of dv will next spring up... I wouldn't go so far as to say it was subconscious, either. Its quite conscious. You've got to do more than allude to important events to get me to take you seriously. I can find me a couple of facts and deliver some glossy remakes of old pictures from the ready-reference internet too. You need to show me you have one inkling of understanding or imagination around why those facts came to be. McTiegue didn't exactly do that, and frankly, I doubt he's even thought about it. At least I'm not holding a vendetta, which would make it a bit too much like my current film nemesis. on the above bolded............
* First, when did ever fall head over heels for him > that happened in Phantom but not here.
* Second, forgeting about that he saved her from the savage Fingermen who wanted to ........... her.
* Third, when he told her that he needed her to stay there for a year - it was as much for her benefit as if she would leave - she had no where to go and not be caught - Remember her original idea was to go home to her apartment or next to friends.
Fourth, he saved her and gave her what she wanted........ with the fake prison, etc. Remember her bigest problem was fear, being scared all of the time > understandable as what happened to her parents
Etc...............................
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| Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:20 pm |
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Bradley Witherberry
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dolcevita wrote: bradley witherberry wrote: - I will be continuing my field observations of your subconscious motivations... I suddenly feel naked. With well over 10,000 posts in this forum and dozens of revealing public movie reviews, I can't help but suspect that you have at least a small exhibitionist streak in you...
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| Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:31 pm |
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The Dark Shape
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getluv wrote: Galia's review reinstates why I think the Wacko brothers are all talk and no brains. The reason why many people have liked these films comes from the same people who think the SAW franchise are quality films, when in fact they are mindless attempts at being intellectual. I can't see V until it opens in another 10 days in Oz, but to me this will go down the same road as THE MATRIX, interesting ideas with some shock scenes to make you feel your watching something worthwhile. So... people who like V for Vendetta and Saw are obviously wrong, but others... who we'll say have a hard-on for Underworld and Crash... are obviously right?
Uh-huh.
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| Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:46 pm |
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getluv
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The Dark Shape wrote: getluv wrote: Galia's review reinstates why I think the Wacko brothers are all talk and no brains. The reason why many people have liked these films comes from the same people who think the SAW franchise are quality films, when in fact they are mindless attempts at being intellectual. I can't see V until it opens in another 10 days in Oz, but to me this will go down the same road as THE MATRIX, interesting ideas with some shock scenes to make you feel your watching something worthwhile. So... people who like V for Vendetta and Saw are obviously wrong, but others... who we'll say have a hard-on for Underworld and Crash... are obviously right? Uh-huh. Underworld never took itself seriously, V is a serious film. IF you really love the SAW franchise, you would know that the 2nd film is deeply flawed. If you love horror films, you would know that the SAW franchise just exploites gore to justify its story.
When i see V i will be able to answer your CRASH reference!
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| Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:53 pm |
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dolcevita
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Inside Man
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/InsideMan.php
Quote: What separates <i>Inside Man</i> from Lee’s previous works is his almost complete focus on, yes, the inside. Anyone turned-off with his stick-it-to-the-man activism often misses his adept and insightful use of the double-edged sword. Whether exploring race, gender, or economy, Lee just as often contemplates those who stick-it-to-themselves. <i>Inside Man</i>’s title should automatically highlight his new narrative direction and place it soundly on the latter criticism.
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| Wed Mar 29, 2006 1:38 am |
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dolcevita
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Strange Wilderness
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/ ... erness.php
Quote: Ready for comedy? You just might find it in the upcoming <i>Strange Wilderness</i>.
<i>Wilderness</i> takes up the simple story of a few useless men that trek through the South American jungle looking for Big Foot in an attempt to save their ailing wilderness show. What this movie adds to the typical jungle adventure, and is in fact the movie’s highlight, is a series of old nature shows and voice-overs that perfectly illustrate why the men’s television endeavors tend to sink rather than swim. As do, coincidentally, several of the t-shirt and sneaker clad expedition members themselves.
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| Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:17 am |
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