Mini Movie Reviews Archives
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HUSTLERS
HUSLTERS – Since trying it in a class a decade ago, I’ve said pole dancing should be an Olympic sport, it’s very athletic and requires an enormous amount of fitness and training. The competitors would have to change up on the uniform, lose the thong and heels, allow men to compete, but otherwise, it has my vote, especially when someone as graceful and perfectly toned as Jennifer Lopez is the top competitor. However, the movie “Hustlers” is so much more than a light romp of pretty women pole dancing, while running an extortion ring. Female writer/director Lorene Scafaria has created a movie with some meat to it (no pun intended)…
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Where’d You Go, Bernadette
by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE My friend told me I shouldn’t say that Richard Linklater is one of my favorite directors because I’m not a big fan of his early work – “Slackers”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Waking Life”. While this is true, I am a big fan of “School of Rock”, The “Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight” Trilogy, “Boyhood” and now, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” – so I guess in the future, I’ll preface by saying, he’s one of my favorites when his stuff is sentimental and dialogue heavy. Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) is a difficult, creatively frustrated misanthrope and former architect who won a MacArthur “genius” grant and…
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Blinded By the Light
Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview BLINDED BY THE LIGHT – Co-writer/director Gurinder Chadha (“Bend It Like Beckham”) I’ve always said I’m not a fan of Bruce Springsteen’s music. I think growing up in the 80’s I just felt like a white, blue collar icon wasn’t about me, so I didn’t pay much attention to his songs; although, you’d have to have been living under a pop-culture rock not to have seen a pre-Friends, short locks, Courtney Cox being pulled up on stage by “The Boss” for the “Dancing in the Dark” music video. But now, like the previous movie musicals of 2019 “Yesterday”, which celebrates the music of the Beatles and…
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THE KITCHEN
by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor I lightly had THE KITCHEN on my radar, thought it was going to be a female driven mob comedy, mainly because of the casting of Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Haddish who seemed like they could be comedy gold together. But also, I felt the posters and advertising gave me a Charlie’s Angels feeling rather than The Sopranos. The set up of the movie happens quickly, in a comedy this is a good thing, in a gritty crime drama, you want more texture and details. I felt I needed to live longer with these women before I believed they can suddenly take over Hell’s Kitchen. …
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The Farewell
Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview THE FAREWELL, this summer’s indie hit which reached the top ten in its 2nd weekend with the fewest theaters of any movie all year! This is the one you’ve probably heard is “based on an actual lie,” which happened in writer/director Lulu Wang’s life – The handling of her grandmother’s end-of-life care. “The Farewell” stars Awkwafina (aka Nora Lum) best known for playing the outrageous, over the top friend from college in “Crazy Rich Asians”. Here she’s given the opportunity to tone it down as Billi, an unassuming, pensive, millennial Chinese American young woman who’s already having a hard time trying to make ends meet, pursue…
