Change Your Image
MitchB-6
Reviews
The War (2007)
The Truth Will Out
Burn's tries to make the case for how much Americans endured collectively in our most significant war. But no matter how hard he tries, hovering and unspoken is the truth that our sacrifices were minor and our suffering was minimum in comparison with what most of the rest of the world endured -- making the whole thing seem like empty propaganda.
But Burns is the best, and if really wants to tackle an American story of sacrifice and survival in the modern age, he should expand "Jazz" into the full story of the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say on the matter but I need to write ten lines in order to get my comment accepted by IMDb.
A Chronicle of Corpses (2000)
Pretentious but Talented
The decline and fall of the Elliott family (of Virginia?) is rendered completely uninteresting in this pretentious distortion of colonial era norms. McElhinney's bygone art film style evidences contempt for his audience -- those who don't admire wooden performances, high-school costume drama dialogue and dorm room allusions to cultural relativism, are simply not hip.
And yet, many technically well executed scenes do impress, considering the project's micro-budget, and McElhinney does not lose sight of his narrative objective. If you are interested in taking a look, try to focus on "whodunit?"
(Here is an extra line of filler so that my submission will reach the minimum required 10 lines.)
Hofshat Kaits (2007)
Profound and deeply moving, but a bit too "art house" for my tastes.
Director Volach was exhausted today after receiving Tribeca's 2007 Founder's Award for Best Narrative Feature, but gamely answered questions after the screening. He speaks with some authority on the Haredi community he depicts as Volach was born and raised into it but no longer participates because as he says, he has simply "grown up." The original title translates to "Summer Vacation" but this was felt too pat for American and European audiences.
Film stars Assaf Dayan (son of the mono-eyed hero) a notoriously secular Israeli playing Rav Avrohom, at middle-age a relatively young, minor sage of slight conceit in Jerusalem's profoundly orthodox communities. His wife Esther is much younger and dotes on their only child Menachem, a sweetly innocent cheder boy. Esther is the saintly core of the small family's blissful domestic life. Every frame is lovingly crafted in this finely acted and scored film, which drives hard and true to its excruciating conclusion.