Drama

The Novice

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Novice
  • IMDb: link

This character study from writer/director Lauren Hadaway introduces us to obsessive-compulsive college freshman Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) who joins the university’s rowing team. With goals to make varsity, despite having no experience in the sport, Alex throws herself fully into the project in much the same way she decided to make her weakest subject her college major and overcome what she sees as a shortcoming.

The Novice examines a side normally not highlighted in sports films. While Alex is consumed with winning, the movie is not about her heroic struggle over the odds. Instead, The Novice examines compulsion, fixation, obsession, and the winning at all costs attitude that can be destructive not just in the sport but throughout a person’s life. Alex is often offered help, much of it ignored, as she seems predestined towards proving she will either succeed or fail on her own.

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Being the Ricardos

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Being the Ricardos
  • IMDb: link

Being the Ricardos is aptly named as even though a large portion of the movie takes place on the set of I Love Lucy the film is really about the relationship between real-life husband and wife Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) and Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman). While neither of the actors much resemble who they are playing, and Kidman’s look for the movie more closely resembles bad BOTOX than Lucille Ball at times, there’s an interesting story here which is helped by the witty dialogue and pace of writer/director Aaron Sorkin‘s script.

The best aspect of the film is it showcasing how Lucille Ball fought for everything (and against everyone) to try and make the best show possible, which is the only place her marriage really worked. As if the show and her husband’s womanizing weren’t taxing enough. Ball also faces charges of being a Communist during the height of McCarthyism that threaten both her career and the future of the show.

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The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
  • IMDb: link

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the unusual 19th Century artist Louis Wain who would become famous for his cat illustrations. As the title suggests, the film is more than a little whimsical. It’s notable mainly for the performances of Cumberbatch and Claire Foy as Louis’ wife, the governess of his nieces who he immediately falls for despite the discrepancy in their social standing, and the assortment of Wain’s art on display which won over cat lovers everywhere.

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Flee

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Flee
  • IMDb: link

Flee offers a deeply personal take on the refugee experience in a mostly-animated documentary of a man struggling even decades later to express his emotions and memories from harrowing experiences fleeing Afghanistan to Moscow and eventually to Denmark. Our guide, referred to only as Amin, offers his story which is fleshed-out and explored further in animation by director Jonas Poher Rasmussen and his animation team. 

Given that non-animated segments are also used, such as stock footage of the times, I don’t know that the documentary will get the exposure it deserves for an animated film as well as for a documentary. In a year without a breakout animated film, Flee is a mesmerizing and unique film experience that reminds us how the past can continue to haunt someone long after they have reached the relative safety of a new land.

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The Green Knight

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Green Knight
  • IMDb: link

Writer/director David Lowery‘s adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight casts Dev Patel in the role of King Arthur’s (Sean Harris) nephew and youngest knight Gawain who sees a chance to prove himself when a Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) arrives in Camelot for a game. He offers any knight the opportunity to lay a blow on him that he will return in kind one year later.

The adaptation takes some liberties with the source material, making Gawain a bit more of a coward and whoremonger than in the original chivalric poem. After the Green Knight survives Gawain beheading him, and takes his leave, the story flashes forward a full year, meaning we don’t see the looming threat play on the knight over time.

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