Movies Watched -- Graduation (Bacalaureat) (2017)

In Romanian. 127 minute running time so at least a half hour too long, but let me say straight off that I generally love Romanian movies (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu was my favorite movie from 2006), and am willing to give them a pass when they run over the sacred 100 minute mark.

Life is complicated in Romania ... it reminds me so much of China, another non-market-based culture where connections are everything. The hospital scenes especially bring home a lot of my experiences there ... issues of integrity under strain, and the things desperate men do.

Loved it, green rating.

We thought we'd move mountains. We moved nothing.

Movies Watched -- Endless Poetry (2017)

In Spanish. 128 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long. In fact it's about 128 minutes too long and should have been titled Endless Absurdity, Assurdità Sin Fin. Jodo is a lovable loon, but two hours of autobiographical performance art tests the patience of even the most steadfast devotees of small 'A' art. Full red "avoid" for the folks in Omaha.

Ben Sachs: "...  if you consider Jodorowsky's work excessive and mannered, you'll probably find this to be a slog." | The "if" made me laugh out loud. 

Brian Gibson: "It’s not endless, but it can often seem insufferable." | Not "can often seem" but "always is."

Blood is sacred!

Long Nights, Strange Men

Thirteen years old ... love her imperfect teeth, raw talent beats anything packaged by The Machine:

Grace VanderWaal - The A Team Recorded Live: 1/23/2017 - Paste Studios - New York, NY More Grace VanderWaal in the Paste Cloud: http://www.pastemagazine.com/search?t=Grace VanderWaal&m=Video Visit Paste Magazine: http://www.pastemagazine.com

Movies Watched -- Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)

132 minute running time including credits, so at least 30 minutes too long. Vince Vaughn with fake southern accent and shaved head. He has never been able to act, but it doesn't matter here since he just keeps a blank face and delivers his lines in a consistently clipped way. It's a Tarantino wannabe movie. Ultra-violence combined with goofy humor. 

There is a funny opening scene where he beats up his wife's car. His wife is Dexter's foul-mouthed sister, Deb. Vince is running drugs and gets caught and goes to prison. His wife is kidnapped so he has to get himself transferred from a medium security prison to a maximum security prison to kill a guy to get his wife freed (yeah, it's a dumb story). 

Vince is tall and not fat, but he's not in any shape to fight like he does in this movie, it's just silly. The movie became completely ridiculous when Don Johnson appeared (in sunglasses and leather gloves) to reprise his Big Daddy role, though this time as a prison warden instead of a slave owner. Tarantino-lite. 

If you were a certain kind of teenage boy, you'd like this movie. Everyone else should steer clear.

Artfully applied bruises

Movies Watched -- Gook (2017)

94 minute running time so well within the sacred 100 minute mark. This one will put you through an emotional ringer, lots of tears at the end. Filmed in black and white (Spike Lee influence is strong), grainy at times. Set on the day of the Rodney King verdict back in 1992.

A pair of young Korean-American (2nd gen.) brothers running a sad shoe store in the Paramount section of LA ... they have a young black girl helper (whose relationship to them I don't want to spoil), who is delightful (probably won an award for this?).

Comedy and tragedy, especially tragedy.  It's well made, but not fun. Tough one to sit through. The poverty, the racism, the violence, the desperation ... depressing stuff. Yellow rating.  (Green rating if you're in the mood for it.) 

Kamilla lending a hand

Movies Watched -- God's Own Country (2017)

104 minute running time including credits, so well within the sacred 100 minute mark. A homosexual love story. Unhappy gay farm boy in Yorkshire living with his crippled Dad and Grandmother (Nan) ... then a gorgeous Romanian temporary worker comes to the farm, and he just happens to be gay too! Rolling in the mud ensues. (No longer the only gay in the village.)

I found the lout's transformation a little too pat, but yes, it's amazing what a romantic dinner with wood fire and tablecloth can do to change a man (even though Gheorgheous forgot to serve the lager in a glass instead of the can).

I squirmed through all the homosexual sex scenes, watching through splayed fingers, but the movie is well made, it's not terrible. Of course if you think homosexuality is an abomination or perversion or aberrant genetic disorder or whatever, you're not going to be thrilled. But I'm a little more open-minded and can sit through these things, especially when they're well-crafted, and not overly long. Yellow rating.

How do you say 'cock-a-doodle-doo' in Gypsy?

Movies Watched -- Clash (Eshtebak) (2017)

In Egyptian. 97 minute running time so under the sacred 100 minute mark. Apparently there are two factions in Egypt: the army and the Muslim Brotherhood ("MB") ... everybody looks poor and bedraggled. A motley group of people (some pro-MB, some pro-Army) are trapped in a paddy wagon during the summer of 2013. It's an interesting conceit, but 40 minutes in, I ask myself, am I that interested in Egyptian politics?

Civil unrest on a massive scale... captures the chaos and inhumanity of it all. Probably a lot of the comedy is lost in translation, but the tragedy isn't. Yellow rating.

It's complicated

Movies Watched -- Gerald's Game (2017)

103 minutes including credits so well within the sacred 100 minute mark. Movie adaptation of the Stephen King novel published in 1992. It was not badly made, I didn't fast forward at all. No-name actors were good, pacing was good, not overly long as I noted before. But it was disturbing, it's a horror movie for sure. Sexually abusive, screwed-up father/daughter relationship touched on (no pun intended), as well as the asshole/domineering husband in later life thing ... a feminist story of sorts.

You won't enjoy watching this movie, but as I said, it's not badly done. Yellow rating.

Wake up!

Your Jacket Shall Be Blue

Zimmerman's cover is unbearable, but Nic Jones' beautiful guitar and simple voice do the old ballad justice:

Day 4 Canadee-I-O by Nic Jones, from his album Penguin Eggs.

Life Without Her

Terrible quality but there's something special about Gilberto Santa Rosa performing at Centro de Bellas Artes when he was in his early thirties ... choreography with his backing singers always wonderful. Es llorar, amigos, es llorar, indeed. 

Mp3 Gratis: Salsa Clasica, Sensual, Romantica, Live en: www.salsaengrande.com By DannysalsaF