Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich
Movie Monday
This is going to be short review since my neck is killing me. You know the pain you get which makes you hope that driving in the near future will not demand much turning of the head. I've heard that the autobahn is a straight run.
My 6 and 1/2 pound handbag + my zillion pound knitting bag probably haven't helped the situation. How do I know the handbag weighs so much? I weighed it; all by itself and it registered. An event which only happens over 5 pounds. So I got a Kipling bag. Very light, nylon, looks like a dollar store buy but I googled it and found out the brand is expensive and can look bag lady chic. (A denotation I think is condescending and crude but, boy, that bag is a dream to carry; and filled, it doesn't register on the scale.)
My review is for a "little" foreign film: Valentin (2002). Set in Argentina, it tells of an 8 year old boy in the 1960s who dreams of being an astronaut, has a runaway mom, distant dad and lives with a devoted grandmother. Nothing much happens to the boy for a long time, except very ordinary things but as you watch he starts to understand the world and move away from primal bigotry which can plague so many families. Rodrigo Nova plays the boy with such charm and honesty that you're hooked early on in this simple story.
I'm a sucker for foreign films usually because they know that not saying something is many times more powerful than dialogue. For example, in the charming scene where Valentin meets his father's wife-to-be, he says something in all innocence which becomes the deal breaker for the marriage. He nor the audience is ever told what it is. The young woman with him says nothing except becomes sadder and sadder. With simple gestures, you learn something has just occurred to change all their futures. Any observant viewer understands what just happened but the script has the actors never verbalize any of this. It's so much more powerful this way; and so "un-American."
Alejandro Agresti is both writer and director so he must take a double bow. He just shows us Valentin's world; he doesn't judge or pontificate. So when Valentin finally realizes that what he has been taught to hate may not be deserving of it, it happens quietly and silently. Again, so un-American.
A charming movie. Well worth a viewing. In fact, I could watch it again.
Final note: And this is always disturbing. I got on the IMDb forum where someone posted his/her dislike for this movie. Within a few replies, the postings became hateful, calling the OP an idiot, pure evil and worse (some posts had been removed.) JHC! It's only a movie! Ironically, all the hate-filled posters were defending a movie which had as one of its themes, the foolishness/hurtfulness of bigotry.
My 6 and 1/2 pound handbag + my zillion pound knitting bag probably haven't helped the situation. How do I know the handbag weighs so much? I weighed it; all by itself and it registered. An event which only happens over 5 pounds. So I got a Kipling bag. Very light, nylon, looks like a dollar store buy but I googled it and found out the brand is expensive and can look bag lady chic. (A denotation I think is condescending and crude but, boy, that bag is a dream to carry; and filled, it doesn't register on the scale.)
My review is for a "little" foreign film: Valentin (2002). Set in Argentina, it tells of an 8 year old boy in the 1960s who dreams of being an astronaut, has a runaway mom, distant dad and lives with a devoted grandmother. Nothing much happens to the boy for a long time, except very ordinary things but as you watch he starts to understand the world and move away from primal bigotry which can plague so many families. Rodrigo Nova plays the boy with such charm and honesty that you're hooked early on in this simple story.
I'm a sucker for foreign films usually because they know that not saying something is many times more powerful than dialogue. For example, in the charming scene where Valentin meets his father's wife-to-be, he says something in all innocence which becomes the deal breaker for the marriage. He nor the audience is ever told what it is. The young woman with him says nothing except becomes sadder and sadder. With simple gestures, you learn something has just occurred to change all their futures. Any observant viewer understands what just happened but the script has the actors never verbalize any of this. It's so much more powerful this way; and so "un-American."
Alejandro Agresti is both writer and director so he must take a double bow. He just shows us Valentin's world; he doesn't judge or pontificate. So when Valentin finally realizes that what he has been taught to hate may not be deserving of it, it happens quietly and silently. Again, so un-American.
A charming movie. Well worth a viewing. In fact, I could watch it again.
Final note: And this is always disturbing. I got on the IMDb forum where someone posted his/her dislike for this movie. Within a few replies, the postings became hateful, calling the OP an idiot, pure evil and worse (some posts had been removed.) JHC! It's only a movie! Ironically, all the hate-filled posters were defending a movie which had as one of its themes, the foolishness/hurtfulness of bigotry.
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