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TENET

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  • Title: TENET
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TENET Blu-ray reviewI miss blockbusters. Although far from Christopher Nolan‘s best work, TENET doesn’t skimp on spectacle. Tackling perception as he did in Inception, this time around Nolan plays around with the idea of time travel and inversion. The concept is far more clunky than planting an idea within someone’s mind. In fact, TENET eventually devolves into little more than super-spy pitting his skills against a villain out to destroy the world. Basically, TENET is Christopher Nolan’s version of a Bond film.

The story involves an unnamed spy (John David Washington) introduced into a secret war involving those using entropy to travel backwards in time and alter events in their favor. The science is mostly gobbledygook, but the set-up does allow for some interesting sequences involving characters moving backwards through events a second time. Kenneth Branagh is fine as the evil mastermind, although his evil Russian act isn’t as much fun as it was in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

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True History of the Kelly Gang

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  • Title: True History of the Kelly Gang
  • IMDb: link

True History of the Kelly Gang Blu-ray reviewTrue History of the Kelly Gang takes liberties with the history of Australian outlaw and folk hero Ned Kelly (George MacKay) for “entertainment” purposes. I put “entertainment” in quotes because True History of the Kelly Gang is anything but entertaining. The film is a slog through Kelly’s cheerless childhood to learning the outlaw ways and eventually running his own gang (while skirting issues of his sexuality and motivations at every turn). I’m not saying you couldn’t find a way to make an entertaining movie about a crossdressing cowboy, but this certainly isn’t it.

Adapted from the novel of the same name, the script adapted by Shaun Grant spends quite a bit of time on Kelly’s relationship to his parents (Essie Davis and Ben Corbett) and offering an explanation for where his later violence was born, but it doesn’t have much to say about Kelly as either an outlaw or a man. The tone shifts wildly from dark and brooding to at times nearly whimsical leading to an uneven experience that leaves me disinterested in learning anything more about Ned Kelly (or ever seeing this film again).

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The Painter and the Thief

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  • Title: The Painter and the Thief
  • IMDb: link

The Painter and the Thief DVD reviewThe Norwegian documentary by Benjamin Ree examines the unlikely friendship that develops between artist Barbora Kysilkova and one of the thieves, Karl Bertil-Nordland, who stole paintings from her exhibit. While Barbora is at first mostly concerned with recovering the missing artwork, she soon becomes drawn to Karl as a subject for her work. Barbora’s curiosity, rather than anger, towards the thief sets the stage for all that is to come.

With the lives of both subjects documented, and their time together, Ree uses some creative editing to decide how and when to provide certain information to the audience giving The Painter and the Thief a more narrative structure than most documentaries. The result gives us an inside look into the human flaws of both characters while beautifully showcasing how such an unlikely friendship could blossom under difficult circumstances. One of the most unexpected films of the year, The Painter and the Thief is a story of friendship, humanity, forgiveness, and struggle. It’s an inspiring tale that I’m not sure could have been made anywhere else.

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Dear Santa

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  • Title: Dear Santa (2020)
  • IMDb: link

Dear Santa movie reviewIn a year of quarantine, social distancing, and both political and social unrest, Dear Santa is the salve we need. Not to be confused with the 2011 film starring Amy Acker, the documentary from Dana Nachman highlights the work being done in several cities around the United States to get Christmas presents to families in need. The documentary focuses on the United States Postal Service Operation Santa program which collects letters sent to Santa and allows anyone to adopt and send gifts on behalf of Santa Claus.

Nachman’s documentary highlights the history of the program, those currently in charge in multiple cities, how the program works, and volunteers from an elementary school classroom to a group of friends to an organized coalition who work every year to identify and offer Christmas cheer to those who need it most. In a year about what pulls us apart as a nation, Dear Santa reminds us of what can be achieved when we come together. If you are looking for some cathardic holidy schmaltz to make you feel better about where we stand, or if you are interested learning more about the program and helping out on your own, Dear Santa might be the right gift for you this Christmas.

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Totally Under Control

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  • Title: Totally Under Control
  • IMDb: link

Totally Under Control movie reviewTotally Under Control is an indictment of President Donald Trump and the national mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s both a chilling and enraging experience to have the months of inaction, series of missteps, casual disinterest, politicization of a health crisis, and frightening ineptitude chronicled with such precision. Interviewing medical professionals, scientists, and whistleblowers from within the CDC to Jared Kushner‘s volunteers, Totally Under Control highlights the many, many places where the United States went wrong in its policies towards COVID while comparing them to South Korea’s far more aggressive early measures which avoided the large death tolls continuing to rise in the United States.

One idea shared by directors Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, and Suzanne Hillinger is that every health crisis could have been handled better. However, the staggering failure of the United States with COVID runs the gamut from a President not willing to hear the truth, experts fired for telling the truth, and policies put in place making it harder to get life saving masks and drugs to medical professionals until Trump was able to personally profit.

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