Reviews

I always watch Adam Driver films but they all end up being about being. His existential performances, going all the way back to Girls, are slow, brooding, and full of contemplation. This film is no different.

You know the funny thing about this film is that everyone that loves it and gives it a 9 or 10 rating wrote the exact same review. They probably did not do so intentionally, or maybe thought their observations were unique. But in the end, they said the same thing that the last 50 people mentioned, just in a different way.

There is something to say about the work you have to do to pay the bills and what you would do for free but it would great if someone paid you for it and you lived it on your own terms. This film tries to tell a story about a bus driver that is content with his life and does not consider himself to be an artist. But it juts reminds me of all of the people I've met along the way on jobs that do comfortable, "mindless" work, because those are the easiest jobs to keep, and continue to grind but are anything but what their job says they are. The protagonist thinks he's a bus driver that writes poetry. I think he's a poet that drives a bus for a living.

They film is also about how something interesting happens every single day but nothing significant ever happens in life. Nothing happens worth talking about. You can cherish the insignificant moments but honestly why should you? It's false humility. Perhaps they exist for context to keep us from feeling sorry for ourselves. To keep us from being depressed. But there's only so much *nothingness" people can take before they start crawling the walls. Yes we should appreciate the little things. But we don't strive for those things, we strive, hustle and grind for greatness. We may never reach that, but we have to try.

I take the film as an exploration of the void in between life's movements. Eventually people do something; they fail but part of being human is trying and putting forth an effort. Those slow periods can be a week, a year or a decade. It is really up to you. One does nothing until they get the courage to do something. Boredom does not last forever, but appreciate boredom when it presents itself. Make the best of it. Paterson provides a look backstage when the curtain is down and the actors are changing clothes. It isn't the first film to do so. But it's philosophical approach, and the focus on poetry, is something worth contemplating every now and again.

Good film definitely the best filmmaking this year by far but too much of an emphasis on Bernsteins complicated relationship with his wife. Seemed like his wife provided emotional support, and he loved her no question about it, but it isn't really the film that I wanted to see, especially when nothing came out of his relationships with his lovers.

Just when his wife was about to have her own situations on the side she gets diagnosed with cancer. Bernstein stayed with her in her final days and then went back to living out his truth with affairs with other men. The movies tries to end on a high hedonistic note, but it just feels empty and disrespectful to his wife. Not really how we wanted to see things end but I guess if you knew Bernstein personally you wouldn't feel any type of way about it.

I'm with another reviewer this felt like a film for his fans that already knew him, and an opportunity for people to learn about him was lost. Bernstein was still alive when I was a teenager, so it would have been nice to learn more about his motivation.

The Black and White part of the film moves about like an old Woody Allen film and the color part is more technicolor, either real or digitally simulated, for film geeks that love the way that color was represented on film in the 50s. Plus they had the 4/3 ratio which was another distraction. I would have preferred authenticity in the story, not the presentation.

This is a very bizarre, very weird movie. Basically Ken gets motivated by the idea of the patriarchy once he visits the real world but only went to the real world because of Barbie, who was there because of the woman that still plays with Barbie was depressed and, yeah, whatever. Oh and Mattel is run completely by men.

I always wondered what a Barbie films storyline would look like. But this makes Barbie sound like a diversion to play into the fantasies of progressive, feminist, women. And maybe it is maybe it isn't. Mattel is making a serious case for the legitimacy and relevancy of Barbie, and the movie is really a two hour commercial for the toy. But it's worth it to explore dynamics between women and men. Who is in control of relationships, how men and women really need each other for more than just families and reproduction.

In doing so we are back to the patriarchy and old fashioned traditional all American values but maybe that is all that life was ever about anyway. But then when the movie makes its point it gets away from itself, runs too long and gets campy again.

The bigger picture is that Barbie, the film, gives us that movie magic we took for granted. And that's why I think it was so successful. It gives us something that has been missing from cinema for a while. But it is still a mediocre movie. Seven out of 10 for transcending that mediocrity at different times, but only seven out of ten for it's rhetoric. If women are given a choice, they'll probably want to remain in Barbie Land.

A few things here. Leslie Jones obviously has an affinity for her Black contestants. And yes I'm a Black man and it was abundantly clear what was going on.

The second is that the show was interesting on the surface because $100,000 compared to $5,000 back in the nineties? Not much to think about; not sure if anyone ever won the $5,000 back then but the few episodes I've watched it does not appear as if anyone did. I also enjoyed the fact that people could pick up more than just groceries, then again grocery stores today aren't what they were in the nineties.

The third and last is that the show is actually in high definition for a change, with better props, additional characters on the show and a bigger store. Which should have made for a better television show. But it actually doesn't. None of those ABC reboots of seventies, eighties or nineties game shows are better. But again it's nice to see these shows in high definition.

I think the era for these types of shows has passed. The Game Show Network does them better anyway. But it doesn't work when ABC does them, for whatever reason.

Hard to talk about this without giving it away but I'll try. It gets dark around 2/3 of the way in. But without seeing the first 2/3 of the documentary you'll never appreciate the turn that it takes. The rest is just meaningless without watching it in it's entirety.

This film right here is why I watch documentaries. This is a difficult standard to meet.

Makes you feel bad about any curiosity or fascination you had about twins. The only thing I can say is that it explains a lot about why adoptions are the way that they are today.

Cinematography is on point. But this is from Damon Dash I wouldn't expect any less. Soundtrack is great. Environment is beautiful. Actors carry their weight even though I don't recognize any of them. A sleeper of a film, but Damon has many, even though he wants to create the next great ghetto film we need more films like this one.

Biggest surprise is this film is set in Italy without significant Black representation in the cast. Yes, Damon Dash is involved in it coming together. No, it is not that type of party. What this film does well is show the influence of hip-hop culture outside of America, which is a story that needs to be told.

And it's not a corny "Save The Last Dance" interracial love story under the guise of a dance movie either. It is a respectable script. The problem Damon Dash is going to have with the film is that his fans will hate it. But you might catch it on your favorite streaming service. I won't say where I caught it cause that could change by the time the review gets improved.

If hip-hop dance were more of the point of this film, rather than a footnote, it would have performed better. I love it the way that it is.