Women Talking

Women Talking (2022)

Directed by Sarah Polley

Screenplay by Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews

Based on the novel by Miriam Toews

Stars: Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, and Frances McDormand

There is a lot of buzz surrounding this movie since TIFF. Those Oscar movies really want to go hard in the last week of December. Seeing the movie, I can see why people are loving this.

It is 2010. A small colony is rocked by the realization that most of the men in the community have raped the women in the middle of the night. It has been going on for years. A perpetrator has been caught and sent to jail. While most of the elder men leave to bail the suspect out, the women must decide to either forgive the men for what they have done, stay and fight the men or leave the colony.

I am not familiar with the story of the women in this particular story. The decision that they made must have been incredibly hard to do. Your whole world is turned upside down by the actions of awful people in your community.

There was a lot of buzz with Jessie Buckley as Mariche, Claire Foy as Salome and Ben Whishaw as August. Seeing the movie, I believe that Buckley will probably be the sole acting nomination in the movie. I am not discrediting the other actors. The Academy loves to nominate a performance where a lot happens to them. Mariche goes through it in this film.

This is a visceral experience to witness. This makes me want to read the book.

Rating: 10/10

Skyfall

Skyfall (2012)

Directed by Sam Mendes

Screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan

Based on characters created by Ian Fleming

Stars: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Rory Kinnear, Ola Rapace and Albert Finney

After I was throughly disappointed with the "movie" that was Quantum of Solace, I have all but given up hope of the James Bond franchise. Hearing the troubles with MGM delaying the film, it seems like the final nail on the coffin. Now, we have Skyfall that falls on the 50th anniversary of the franchise. This film hearkens back to the past films with a touch of class.

During an assistant in Turkey, 007 (Craig) pursues an assassin, Patrice (Rapace) that has taken an highly sensitive hard drive that contains the identities of MI-6 agents embedded terrorist organizations around the world. In an unlikely moment, his shadow Eve (Harris) accidentally shoots Bond and let the bad  guy get away. Bond is presumed dead. An unknown force is coming after MI-6, but this person is particularly after M (Dench).

I'm familiar with the Bond films. This movie felt like a Bond film. The intrigue, the seductions, the thrills, the suspense, the gadgets; it had all of that. Hearing about the plot of the film beforehand, I knew where the story was going to go, but I did not expect it to go with it did. My analytical brain was trying to figure out where will happen next. Some things I predicted came true and some things didn't. I'm glad that the film went to its roots like in Casino Royale.

The major thing bothered me about the movie was the callbacks to the previous films. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It felt like deja vu. It understood that it is the 50th anniversary of the Bond franchise, but my head was getting dizzy by those moments.

My Rating