Wild Prairie Rose

 Wild Prairie Rose (2016)

Directed by Deborah LaVine

Screenplay by Sharon Greene

Stars: Tara Samuel, Troy Kotsur, Suann Spoke, Betsy Berenson, and Maya Brattkus

I was scrolling on twitter and saw that Troy Kotsur retweeted this movie. He said that it was his first independent movie before breakthrough role in CODA.

The movie takes place in 1952 where Rose (Samuel) comes back to her childhood town somewhere in South Dakota to take care of her ailing mother, Pearl (Spoke). As the mother deals with arthritis, Rose comes up with an idea to make a movie for her mother. Rose enlists the help of local repairman, James (Kotsur) to film the movie. She realizes that James is deaf, not dumb as the townspeople think.

My thinking is that this was a TV movie at some point. The movie feels like a ION/Pureflix type of movie. The beginning of the movie is a slog to get through. The movie really starts when Rose meets James.

I'm not saying that the movie is great. The movie is cute. Perfectly fine.

 

Rating: 6/10

Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! (1955) 

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig

Based on the stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Based on the play, "Green Grow the Lilacs" by Lynn Riggs

Stars: Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, Eddie Albert, Charlotte Greenwood, and Barbara Lawrence

Full disclosure. I have never seen a live version of Oklahoma! I am familiar with a couple songs, but nothing else.

When I read the byline of the movie, I was expecting something along the lines of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or Fiddler on the Roof (both of which I have not seen, but I heard rumblings about them.) 

 This movie is more about two sets of love triangles. One with Curly (MacRae), Laurey (Jones) and Jud (Steiger) and the other with Tom (Nelson), Ado Annie (Grahame) and Ali (Albert). I was more interested in the first triangle than the other. One of the biggest problems of the movie is Ado Annie. I hated her character.

The other gripe I had with this movie is the dream ballet sequence. It went on forever-- at least fifteen minutes. I hated all of it.

This was solid movie with obvious flaws.

Rating: 7.5/10

Deep Water

Deep Water (2022)

Directed by Adrian Lyne

Screenplay by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson

Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith

Stars: Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Tracy Letts, Dash Mihok, Rachel Blanchard, Jacob Elordi, Brendan Miller and Finn Wittrock

This movie was touted as a a return to form for director, Adrian Lyne to his sexual thrillers from the 80s. This movie is not a big weekend blowout party, but a person sitting at home in the dark say, "whoo."

This story about a couple Vic and Melinda (Affleck, de Armas) who seem to have a picture perfect life, but something dark and sinister in under the surface. Melinda is a serial cheater and Vic is privy to it. Vic wants to stay in the marriage for the sake of their kid. Maybe? Who cares?

This was boring. Seriously. The movie was so dull and lifeless that I was checking my phone, leaving the room to do something more interesting than watching this movie. For years, I did not get the Affleck that he got. Now, I understand why he gets it. He doesn't embody the characters. He is saying lines. No emotion, no nuance in his performance here. My face was the facial expressions that Vic had.

I do not like this movie. The "action" starts in the last twenty minutes of the movie. It was sloppy. Stupid. Dumb. Idiotic. There was a glaring continuity error during the climax of this movie. I had to pause the movie and watch it again. Nobody saw it. The director or editor saw it. Face palm.

Rating: 1/10

Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2021

 Here is my list for my favorite films of 2021:

 

10.

The Hand of God

 

9.

Dune

8.

Drive My Car

7.

Licorice Pizza

6.

tick, tick...boom!

Short Term 12

Short Term 12 (2013)

Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Stars: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Stephanie Beatriz, LaKeith Stanfield, and Frantz Turner

This movie was recommended for me from Film Twitter. So, thank you for turning me onto this movie. I have never heard of it until earlier this month.

This movie tells the story of at-risk youth counselors Grace and Mason (Larson, Gallagher Jr)  as they try to navigate keeping their relationship private and helping the kids in their care.

LaKeith Stanfield was a standout in this movie. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his supporting performance.

The unlikely friendship between Grace and Jayden (Dever) was the heart of the film.

The performances across the board were solid. I had a problem with the third act of the film. It seems like Malek's character, Nate didn't have that much to do. I thought he would have a substantial role in the movie.

Rating: 7.5/10

Terrible Movie Thur - Friday - Dead Walkers: Rise of the 4th Reich

Dead Walkers: Rise of the 4th Reich (2013)

Written and directed by Philip Gardiner

Stars: Philip Berzamanis, Jane Haslehurst, Bob Lee, Nathan Head, Rudy Barrow and Jack Burrows

There is a reason why this review is coming out in the wee hours of the morning on Friday. I was watching this "movie" and I was so bored that I fell asleep 45 minutes into this 77 minute "movie."

Where do I start? The plot of this "movie" is a British agent, Alpha One (Berzamanis) discovers a plot that some members of the 3rd Reich survived WWII as they are intertwined with occult forces to make a 4th Reich. I guess?

The movie was trying to be like a Jason Bourne movie, but not. Maybe a Splinter Cell game, but failing spectacularly.  It was part Sopranos, but only the therapy scenes with Dr. Melfi. There was random bullshit was on the screen whether it was numbers, yellow or blue god rays, lenses flares galore or anything.

You cannot hear the actors most of the time, because the sound was inaudible. The royalty free music that was used overpowered the speech in this. I tried to put on closed captioning, even the dictation gave up trying to figure out this garbage. I did know what was happening. The fighting choreography was atrocious. The plot was nonsense. Maybe the sleep fairy was sparing me from enduring anymore of this abysmal experience.

The only good thing about this movie is you saw Berzamanis shirtless. That's it.

Rating: .5/10

Flugt

Flee (2021)

Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Written and starring: Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Amin Nawabi

I thought I was done with watching Oscar movies this year, but I had to see this one that has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Animated Feature (?) and Best Documentary Feature.

This movie tells the story of Amin about his harrowing journey from being smuggled out of Afghanistan during the rise of Taliban during the late 80s.

I understood why Rasmussen chose to make the film animated because Amin wanted to protect his identity and those of his family that are placed in different parts of Europe. I get that. I don't know the criteria for Animated Feature, but there are parts of the documentary that are not animated.

The structure of the film is mix between recorded conversations and reenactment of events. I love this movie, but I had a couple gripes with it. I wish I learned more about how Rasmussan meet Amin. Where did they meet? How did he know about Amin's story? I felt that the movie was blase with what happened to Amin's family. The movie was also blase with Amin and his relationship with his partner, Kasper.

Rating: 8.5/10