This sounds incredible and so timely… And by its title ensures that not any man who needs to see this movie will! I hope it wins every Oscar!
(That's not necessarily meant as a critique. I'm also tired of men being given sugar pills to teach them the things they should have known a long time ago…)
So did you like it? Sounds like you did, but it's not quite clear. Same with All's Quiet on the Western Front. Perhaps it's your ethics as a critic not to bring personal opinion into it, at least in a thumbs up, thumbs down kinda way?
I probably would have watched this if I could have rented it or subscribed to a streaming service for a month, but couldn't bring myself to pay significantly more than that to see it in a theatre. And, again, it's one of those that sounds like homework. I appreciate the lesson, but it sure sounds like one I learned a few grades back. How entertaining was it?
Or one could read those quotes as damning with faint praise. Just like describing a film as lovely. I think Gonococci are lovely under a Microscope, but that doesn’t mean I like them. That’s why I ask.
I don't give star ratings. It has nothing to do with the thumb on the scale. My model, which I got from my favorite critics, is to tell you what I experienced, and leave you to make your purchase decision based on whether that sounds like your thing or not.
All these movies might get five stars based on some metric -- All Quiet would certainly, because of all the excellent production values -- but a lot of people, like me, would still find them misbegotten. That's hard to put into a recommendation model.
Speaking of talking cures, I was reading up on Dialectic Behavioral Therapy and I realized, “Hey, dialectic is like dialectic materialism which is Communism!” So, will DBT be Chris Rufo’s next CRT bugaboo? Watch this space.
Well, considering that people with disabilities (including mental illnesses) were among the first targets and victims of the Nazi, it would not fucking surprise me...
Considering that I find it easy to believe the claim that an angry, English, mob attacked a pædiatrician's office looking for 'pædos', I'll sure-why-not this.
Rufo, however, will explicitly write that one has nothing to do with the other but the opportunity were too good to waste.
Thanks, Roy - I didn't know about this movie, and regardless of an express "I like it = I give it 5 thumbs up!" from you, your review seems to recommend viewing it.
I hadn't really been following Sarah Polley's career since I first saw her in The Sweet Hereafter (another film which dealt with sexual abuse). So off to Wikipedia, where I learned:
She got in trouble with Disney, which had picked up a TV series she was starring in, for wearing a peace sign at an awards ceremony in protest of the first Iraq war (in 1991)
At age 17 she contacted Margaret Atwood to suggest directing a film version of her novel Alias Grace, they both decided to wait til Sarah had more directing experience to tackle the job, it came out as a miniseries in 2017.
I don't think I have ever wanted so much for someone to win Best Director.
I have the same exact experience with Ms. Polley. She's only directed 4 full-length movies since 2006, but each seems to have attracted a great deal of attention.
Her work is very intentional and smart. Other even great directors have a way of lapsing, as if they really don't take their ideas seriously, while taking themselves all too seriously.
"Toward the end I confess I began to worry whether the women would be able to effect their plan, and felt myself urging them to hurry up about it. . . ." I can feel it.
Thanks for the reviews. I watched EEAAO and was glad I did.
Sarah Polley first hit my radar screen as an actress is the Atom Egoyan movie "The Sweet Hereafter." I have to admit not seeing any of the movies she's directed (not even the acclaimed "Away From Her," which was on my list of movies I wanted to see but never quite got around to seeing). Sounds like I need to rectify that.
Every woman stuck in a religious cult or a sports club (Nassar) or most commonly a family with a pedophile father, uncle, grandfather, brother, experiences and carries the abuse alone. Her abuser will threaten or shame her and after the abuse is over, will bully her relentlessly to avoid his own guilt. For me, this movie is MeToo. My eyes are more open than they've ever been. For example, in every "Dateline" type story of a woman raped or killed, the narrative invariably includes a description of how wonderful the woman is; because women must be pure to be supported, STILL. And though the victims may have been wonderful, this should be irrelevant. It shouldn't matter who she is or how she lived. In the words of fictional detective Bosch, "everyone matters or no one matters." No one deserves it. No one "asks for it". The abuser has no excuse, no reason, no justification. I recently told a friend who counseled his daughter to avoid dressing sexily at night "in case", that this is victim blaming. It's not the clothes. Women in Muslim countries draped from head to toe are raped. I bought that bullshit too, but no more. Men need to be made to own all of it. Hopefully some day they will.
This looks very intense but its got two of my favorite actors --Sheila McCarthy and Judith Ivey who raise the level of anything they are in so I will check it out if possible. Anybody remember Sarah Polley as Ramona when she was a kid? What a career trajectory! She was also in the third part of a particularly droll BBC series "Slings and Arrows" about the trials and frustrations of trying to produce good theatre.
Nicely described and pitched. I can hardly wait to see it now. But does it come in a Meso-American version? Or how about something from the Asian Steppe?
Thanks for this. Like all the big bad balloons of the past, was not on my radar.
This sounds incredible and so timely… And by its title ensures that not any man who needs to see this movie will! I hope it wins every Oscar!
(That's not necessarily meant as a critique. I'm also tired of men being given sugar pills to teach them the things they should have known a long time ago…)
Women Talking... WITH EXPLOSIONS
At least you didn't write "Webcam" first...for which we are eternally grateful-ish.
So did you like it? Sounds like you did, but it's not quite clear. Same with All's Quiet on the Western Front. Perhaps it's your ethics as a critic not to bring personal opinion into it, at least in a thumbs up, thumbs down kinda way?
I probably would have watched this if I could have rented it or subscribed to a streaming service for a month, but couldn't bring myself to pay significantly more than that to see it in a theatre. And, again, it's one of those that sounds like homework. I appreciate the lesson, but it sure sounds like one I learned a few grades back. How entertaining was it?
Roy wrote
"But in its own tough-minded way it delivers the goods."
and
"But as I said, the movie is about making the decision, not what comes after, and that much is enough."
which should be all you need to discern he liked , and was entertained, by it.
Or one could read those quotes as damning with faint praise. Just like describing a film as lovely. I think Gonococci are lovely under a Microscope, but that doesn’t mean I like them. That’s why I ask.
My brief experience reading Roy suggests those quotes I posted are more than 'faint praise'...
I don't give star ratings. It has nothing to do with the thumb on the scale. My model, which I got from my favorite critics, is to tell you what I experienced, and leave you to make your purchase decision based on whether that sounds like your thing or not.
All these movies might get five stars based on some metric -- All Quiet would certainly, because of all the excellent production values -- but a lot of people, like me, would still find them misbegotten. That's hard to put into a recommendation model.
Speaking of talking cures, I was reading up on Dialectic Behavioral Therapy and I realized, “Hey, dialectic is like dialectic materialism which is Communism!” So, will DBT be Chris Rufo’s next CRT bugaboo? Watch this space.
Anything with any level of ambiguity will eventually be targeted
(Sold to people who won't know the difference between dialectic and chiropractic.)
Well, considering that people with disabilities (including mental illnesses) were among the first targets and victims of the Nazi, it would not fucking surprise me...
Considering that I find it easy to believe the claim that an angry, English, mob attacked a pædiatrician's office looking for 'pædos', I'll sure-why-not this.
Rufo, however, will explicitly write that one has nothing to do with the other but the opportunity were too good to waste.
Now I want to see it.As always- great review. That films like this get made and get recognition always gives me hope.
Thanks, Roy - I didn't know about this movie, and regardless of an express "I like it = I give it 5 thumbs up!" from you, your review seems to recommend viewing it.
Not for me to say! YMMV! etc.
I hadn't really been following Sarah Polley's career since I first saw her in The Sweet Hereafter (another film which dealt with sexual abuse). So off to Wikipedia, where I learned:
She got in trouble with Disney, which had picked up a TV series she was starring in, for wearing a peace sign at an awards ceremony in protest of the first Iraq war (in 1991)
At age 17 she contacted Margaret Atwood to suggest directing a film version of her novel Alias Grace, they both decided to wait til Sarah had more directing experience to tackle the job, it came out as a miniseries in 2017.
I don't think I have ever wanted so much for someone to win Best Director.
I have the same exact experience with Ms. Polley. She's only directed 4 full-length movies since 2006, but each seems to have attracted a great deal of attention.
Her work is very intentional and smart. Other even great directors have a way of lapsing, as if they really don't take their ideas seriously, while taking themselves all too seriously.
"Toward the end I confess I began to worry whether the women would be able to effect their plan, and felt myself urging them to hurry up about it. . . ." I can feel it.
Thanks for the reviews. I watched EEAAO and was glad I did.
Sarah Polley first hit my radar screen as an actress is the Atom Egoyan movie "The Sweet Hereafter." I have to admit not seeing any of the movies she's directed (not even the acclaimed "Away From Her," which was on my list of movies I wanted to see but never quite got around to seeing). Sounds like I need to rectify that.
Every woman stuck in a religious cult or a sports club (Nassar) or most commonly a family with a pedophile father, uncle, grandfather, brother, experiences and carries the abuse alone. Her abuser will threaten or shame her and after the abuse is over, will bully her relentlessly to avoid his own guilt. For me, this movie is MeToo. My eyes are more open than they've ever been. For example, in every "Dateline" type story of a woman raped or killed, the narrative invariably includes a description of how wonderful the woman is; because women must be pure to be supported, STILL. And though the victims may have been wonderful, this should be irrelevant. It shouldn't matter who she is or how she lived. In the words of fictional detective Bosch, "everyone matters or no one matters." No one deserves it. No one "asks for it". The abuser has no excuse, no reason, no justification. I recently told a friend who counseled his daughter to avoid dressing sexily at night "in case", that this is victim blaming. It's not the clothes. Women in Muslim countries draped from head to toe are raped. I bought that bullshit too, but no more. Men need to be made to own all of it. Hopefully some day they will.
This looks very intense but its got two of my favorite actors --Sheila McCarthy and Judith Ivey who raise the level of anything they are in so I will check it out if possible. Anybody remember Sarah Polley as Ramona when she was a kid? What a career trajectory! She was also in the third part of a particularly droll BBC series "Slings and Arrows" about the trials and frustrations of trying to produce good theatre.
Nicely described and pitched. I can hardly wait to see it now. But does it come in a Meso-American version? Or how about something from the Asian Steppe?