Origin
True Connections
PRAISE: Ava DuVernay’s Origin may be her most effective and memorable movie yet. The story based on Isabel Wilkerson's landmark book to frame the conversation about segregation and inequality on a global scale and the raw emotion coupled with it.
The movie is effective with a capital E the performances from the cast are so true and down to Earth so praise to the cast including: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Emily Yancy, Blair Underwood and Vera Farmiga.
The movie truly displays how love and friendship can defy any hurdles the pain and power of racism may have.
The visuals are soul stirring and then some. Some are very triggering. When the film turns to Allison and Elizabeth Davis, Black anthropologists who saw first-hand the book burning in Nazi Germany and White anthropologists Burleigh and Mary Gardner and their brave and then some undercover work it was an eye opening revelation to me and I definitely want to read their book Deep South. The film reveals how some connections were for the good in the research of racism and how some studies and connections were sinister.
The film is so many things,part family drama and lecture with a bit of a documentary vibe blended in and it really works for the most part.
PROBLEMS: I would have liked to have spent more time with certain characters that inhabit the film instead of long dwelling shots of humiliation. Some parts of the movie are to on the nose and blatant.
Scale of 1 to 10 an 8½
Love Lies Bleeding
Boundless Love !!!!
PRAISE: Yes its a love story....a crazy,tension filled, blood soaked one !!
The story Lou is a reclusive gym manager who falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder who's heading to Las Vegas to pursue her dream....that slowly turns into a nightmare. Director and writer Rose Glass and co writer Weronika Tofilska put together a story with all of the small town connections and grit of a nineties thriller that has an enthusiastic and then some cast including : Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian who is a revelation even though i know her from The Mandalorian, Anna Baryshnikov, Jena Malone Ed Harris, and Dave Franco. The passion and love at first sight between the main characters is very believable as the story lays out tension and ties to pasts that are filled with sinister doings but also couple with dreams of wanting more in life and wanting to escape from certain paths in life. The violence in the movie is definitely not for the faint of heart and some visuals are very shocking. Speaking of visuals there are some that are really well done and trippy. The film gets so many things right as the characters find themselves painted into corners,even when some of their hearts are in the right place it has shocking outcomes. There is a great running gag about trying to quit a vice.
PROBLEMS: Thinking back on a nod to an animated classic in the movie, I should have seen a unintentionally funny visual coming. It happens late in the film but it's so crazy it did take me out of the film. I'm really curious to how other people will have a just go with it feeling about it or did it disrupt all of the great things the movie has going for it.
Scale of 1 to 10 an 8