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Into the Wild (2007)
A deeply affecting movie about life's journeys
Firstly I note that in this year of 2021 Hal Holbrook (Mr Franz) passed away at the age of 95. He was 82 while filming Into The Wild, and became the oldest male performer ever nominated for an Academy Award for his very touching role in the movie. Whilst the movie seems so much about Christopher McCandless who is in almost every scene, I sense this movie is as much about the other people we encounter along the way. Sean Penn does a fine job of showing that these people are also on their journeys, as indeed we the viewers are too. I have to give a ten as I believe it achieves everything it could have done. (Though I must say I didn't warm to the soundtrack of Vedder's song, but maybe that's just me).
2012 (2009)
One of my guilty pleasure
I'm more into heartfelt dramas and serious content, rather than guns and gangsters) but I also love a big budget disaster movie. I'm prepared to suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the thrills and this certainly has many. The momentum in the first half is such fun.
Mauvaises herbes (2018)
A French feel-good movie, charming and fun.
Netflix offered this to me and, as I sometimes do when up to the challenge, I jumped in without checking the IMDB rating. Needless to say, this viewing practice doesn't always work out well!
Bad Seeds opens with a petty criminal in a shopping center car park, and it was hard to think at that point that we the viewers could warm to the delinquent protagonist. However, that soon changes with the introduction of Monique (Catherine Deneuve) and Victor (André Dussollier). The story moves quickly to its main location, a school where Wael has to keep six school misfits occupied for a few days when they are suspended from class. From then on, it's a series of scenes, funny, sweet, touching, sad and dramatic in turn. The part where he is telling the teenagers a story is one of the cutest things I've seen in a while.
Spliced into all this were flashback scenes of the child orphan Wael in an unnamed Middle Eastern war zone. Whilst this could have been excluded to make a more linear story, these segments were always well done and brief enough not to slow the movie down too much.
The young actors playing the six very different troubled teenagers do a good job, and have some fun scenes. Their respective situations lead to multiple interconnected threads in the story-line which I thought were all engaging and made for a very satisfying last quarter hour.
Deneuve and Dussollier are adorable in their roles of estranged friends of mature years getting to know each other again. Kheiron as writer, director and lead actor is surely one to watch out for. This guy has talent.
An entertaining movie, enough that I watch it again with the English dub the following evening. (Fine, but it's better in French!) I would not be surprised to see a Hollywood remake.
Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
Gritty and touching true story
JD is a good kid. To say he didn't have the best start in life would be an understatement, but he did have a family, albeit dysfunctional. Having to deal with his addict mother and her abusive behavior towards him is sometimes heartbreaking to watch. The gritty coming of age true story is brought to life by stunning performances by Amy Adams and especially Glenn Close as the grandmother figure. Not glamorous roles. If you're into misery memoirs and inspirational stories, this is certainly worth watching.