amateur review space

In Treatment (Produced and Developed by Rodrigo Garcia)/2008-2010 If you are interested in psychology or self-development you will love In Treatment. It was produced by HBO but closely based on an Israeli show  BeTipul. It examines the life of a psychotherapist, with a particular focus on whether someone can truly help another person when they cannot help themselves. It also explores how hard it is to change without falling into the cynical trap of thinking change is impossible.  W hat it shows is that life often changes us in ways different to what we want or expect, and it is our willingness to accept and move with these changes which determines whether they are good or bad. In Treatment is centred on a psychotherapist called Dr Paul Weston (acted sublimely by Gabriel Byrne). Paul is a good listener, empathetic, and intelligent enough to understand what people are really saying and why they are saying it. However, the traits needed for a goo...

Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays (Written by David Foster Wallace)/2005 I think it is time to admit to myself that I just do not enjoy David Foster Wallace’s (DFW) novels that much. I tried to read Infinite Jest twice and both times picked up another book about a third of a way through. My kindle tells me I have read 68% of Pale King, but I feel I have had enough of that too. DFW’s novels do not follow the usual temporal course: they bounce between characters and times in history, creating a feeling of a time and place rather than following a character through the temporal flow of past moving into future. They are novels that create a feeling and make a moral statement through a buildup of people and events: we, as readers, become immersed in the atmosphere rather than the story. I think at a certain point in these novels I had absorbed the message DFW was trying to make and didn’t need any more evidence. As I was pretty sure there would be no grand conclusion or sur...

Elena (Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev)/2011 Elena could be considered a typical story of a family squabble over inheritance.   However, it goes beyond that to raise questions about the distribution of wealth and the “deserving poor”. Elena and Vladimir are an elderly couple in their retirement. Vladimir and Elena have met in their later years and have separate families from the past.   Elena is gentle and caring.   Vladimir is a cold, irritable man with health difficulties.   The couple lives in a modern comfortable apartment in a nice suburb: all due to Vladimir’s wealth.   Elena has come from a more humble background.   Even in their nice apartment, we get the sense that she is not fully comfortable in her own home with all the latest mod cons and the supposed luxury. Elena’s son Sergey and his family live in the outskirts of the city near a nuclear power plant.   Their home is a cramped, dirty apartment:   one in the many blocks...

The House I Live In (Directed by Eugene Jarecki)/2012 This is a documentary that wants to cause social change. It presents one side of a story as powerfully and clearly as possible. Director Eugene Jarecki would argue that this does not lessen the quality of the film as we have heard the other side of the story all of our lives in a multitude of forms and it has fully permeated the way we think about the issue. The House I Live In is about the war on drugs. The statement ‘war on drugs’ first came into popular consciousness when Richard Nixon called it America’s number one priority. It is a war that was continued by every American president after Nixon, and adopted in various forms throughout the world: due to American political pressure, a reactionary media and international treaties.   War on drugs refers to the government’s aggressively punitive policy against drug use. This documentary does not make the argument that drug use should be encouraged. Rather, it points ...

Hemingway’s Boat:   Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 (Written by Paul Hendrickson)/2011 There is a lot about Ernest Hemingway to dislike. He was a bully to his romantic partners, his children, and other writers (Scott Fitzgerald to name one). He was a chronic alcoholic who would hit on other women in front of his wife, and fight other men for fun. He was extremely domineering but prone to intense sulking and withdrawal when things did not go his way. It was always someone else’s fault – even when it clearly was not. None of the above attributes are hidden by Hendrickson in this fine book. However, by focusing on Hemingway’s famous boat Pilar it weaves people into the narrative of Hemingway’s life that in a classical biography would scarcely appear. Hemingway’s Boat spends long periods focusing on people that spent time on Pilar with Hemingway, often for very long periods. For example, a young hobo spent a year on Pilar after tracking Hemingway down in an...

State Legislature (Directed by Frederick Wiseman)/2007 Depending on your interests, you will either find this (220 minute!) movie extremely tedious or hypnotically interesting. If you are interested in American politics, the legislative process or the inner working of the democratic process, then you will love this movie. Frederick Wiseman is a unique documentary maker. There is no music and Wiseman never speaks. He just watches people going about their business and then edits the footage to create the film. He has built his career examining institutions: hospitals, prisons, monasteries, boxing gyms and public housing estates. One senses he does not go into the filming process with a predetermined ideological agenda, but simply wants to capture the reality before him as it is. His movies are very calm and soothing, or maybe boring if you cannot relax into them. This particular documentary looks at the Idaho House of Representatives and Senate debating policies and creating law...

The Circle (Directed by Jafar Panahi)/2000 The Circle explores the lives of Iranian women struggling to live their lives in a city somewhere in Iran.  Given that the film was made more than 10 years ago, I am unsure whether the state of affairs remains the same as when the film was made: it could be worse or better.  From the film's presentation, it seems an unfortunate fate to be born a woman in Iran.  From the moment a girl has been born , we see despair from people who wanted her to be a boy, for her sake as well as for her mother’s sake; and things do not seem to improve throughout the various stages of a woman's life. What this film represented for me was the importance of fundamental freedom as a human being against the demands of the moral values of society.  Tension is common in all interactions where the needs/desires of an individual clashes with those of the society, but the freedom to engage in this conflict is a necessary part of h...

Mad Men (Created by Mathew Weiner)/2007-2015 What has happened to Mad Men? I first started watching Mad Men after being blown away by the Wire. At the time it was a solid way to deal with the loss of Stringer Bell and Bunk from my life. The opening credits were amazing, the clothes and furniture beautiful and the historical references interesting. Central to Mad Men was always the beautiful loser Don Draper. Like the Sopranos, Mad Men gave us an anti-hero: a man that was far from perfect, but with enough charm and positive attributes to be likable. Draper cheated on his wife, but had a passion for his work and rose from a state of poverty. Moreover, his objectification of women was always balanced by his mentoring of Peggy and his love for Anna Draper. I always found Don’s story of taken identify a bit odd, but it told us boldly that the men of Don’s age were losing their identify: an identity built on the lie of inherent male dominance. As the show has progressed Don, and the sh...

The Fountain (Directed by Darren Aronofsky)/2006 What is the significance of illness and death? Is it something that can be overcome or something that is part of the course? So much energy and resource goes into keeping ourselves healthy and alive.   Even in my life: eating fruit and vegetables, plenty of water, vitamins and gym.   Moreover, there are more drastic or bizarre health-promotion measures on which you can spend all the money in the world. On the one hand, it can be argued that illness and death is something polar opposite to human existence because they are the decline and disappearance of existence.   This is contrasted by the Buddhist view that death and reincarnation is part of life. The Fountain deals with these two opposing views represented by two lovers. Tommy (Hugh Jackman) is determined to defeat illness and death and acquire eternal life for his love Izzi (Rachel Weisz).   He repeats his quest in various cycles of life and we see...

Force Majeure (Directed by Ruben Ostlund)/2014 Force Majeure explores the conformist nature of gender roles and the family unit. It also shows how much of the misery in human life comes from superficial demands placed on oneself, others and the world without taking into account what people and the natural world are actually like. A Swedish family begins a ski holiday at a beautiful resort in France. From the beginning of the movie there is a tension of expectations: this MUST be a fun trip, and any hint of irritability or tiredness are taken as an affront to this expectation. Children being children express their human emotions, but Tomas and Ebba (the father and mother) place pressure on themselves and each other to have the idyllic family holiday experience they planned and worked for.   Expensive hotel and the limited time raise the stakes. Like much of life, the universe has other plans for Tomas and Ebba. A human made avalanche is set off to loosen the snow and...

El Topo (directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky)/1970 Watching El Topo is like reading an obscure religious parable. Every moment attempts to point to the worldview that its author is trying to portray. Moreover, like an Old Testament parable or a Zen Koan, the meaning is not given to an individual for ready consumption. The viewer must work to get something out of it. One might not agree with the message being presented in the symbolism, but to interact with this movie is try to interpret the symbolism and then either take the message or disregard it. Alejandro Jodorowsky in this movie presents what he takes to be the human road to truth and the reality of what finding truth entails. The main character, a mysterious gunslinger called El Topo (the Mole), is the quest for truth incarnate. The movie follows El Topo’s search for truth and the various ideas that battle within one’s mind when one tries to determine the meaning of life. Each phase of El Topo’s journey represents a seeker’s ...

Love is Strange (Directed by Ira Sachs)/2014 Love is Strange is a gentle movie with a tinge of sadness, not unlike the Chopin nocturnes that carry its soundtrack. It's centered on a recently married middle-aged gay couple, but more generally explores the various kinds of love that make up the most significant parts of our lives and the strange dynamics that often play out within them. It is also a movie that normalizes homosexual marriage due to displaying the more mundane aspects and frustrations that the married couple face. The commentary is not overly cynical or simplistic, and shows a humanity that tries, often fails, but mostly does its best to treat others with respect and affection. Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) are a gay couple that have been together for 39 years. The movie opens with them getting married and celebrating with family and close friends in their New York apartment. We are given the impression that their family is fully accepting of the c...