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emilymarshmallows
Reviews
Five Feet Apart (2019)
I have CF - here's my opinion
I'm a 35 year old with CF. I was excited about this movie because any representation is potentially great. But I've seen other CF movies, seen it on TV, and it's usually terribly done. Incorrect nonsense, people are on o2 but climbing hills like it's no big deal, the severity isn't properly shown, etc.
This movie manages to mostly stay away from that. Is it 100% accurate? Of course not. It's still a Hollywood film. It's not a documentary. That being said, this does a better job than any other CF fiction I've ever seen. It includes a lot of the real things that CFers deal with: all our therapies, nebs, vesting, the ports, the G tubes, the o2, surgeries, the isolation, the survivor's guilt, and many others.
A lot of people in the CF community have been up in arms about two CFers getting together despite the bacteria concerns. While I understand the hesitation, I personally know four couples where both spouses had/have CF (had because some have died). We need to look at this as a real situation because it is. There's a lot of isolation in CF, and reaching out to the only people on the planet who can truly understand you is only natural. As long as both people are consenting adults, know the risks, and go for it anyway, we need to respect that.
I appreciate that this movie tackles both the reality of CF and the controversial subject of CFers breaking the six foot rule. This is a very real film, and not once did I feel offended or roll my eyes. Not 100% accurate, no, but I feel seen. I feel represented. Absolutely worth seeing, and i look forward to seeing it again.
Jigsaw (2017)
Disappointing
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
I want to start by saying I had to locate a very old account to write this review. I feel strongly about this. I am a big Saw fan. I know it's mostly torture trash, but we all have guilty pleasures. I know they aren't brimming with substance or importance. I was not expecting some life-altering revelation to come as a result of seeing Jigsaw. That being said, allow me to get to the film.
It's been 7 years since Saw: 3D came out. I had assumed that since they were coming back after years off, they would only do so if they had something really interesting or surprising. Something new to bring to the table. They had no such thing. Every single explanation and plot "twist" has been used in Saw before. "These are taking place at the same / different times!" "Let's shoehorn in this history that has never been mentioned EVER before to explain new things/people!"
They stuffed the film to the brim with "new history." There were so many things. Granted many didn't matter, but it felt cheap. Jigsaw had a nephew? We never heard of any family of his, other than Jill (and Gideon). Jill Tuck's family had a pig farm? That's news. The new coroner guy had never been seen or heard of. Where is Dr. Gordon? Where are Brad and Ryan (Gordon's accomplices at the very end of 3D - from the public trap in the beginning of the movie)? How did Coroner Guy never interact with Amanda or Hoffman or Jill? The part where Coroner Guy explains how he started working with Jigsaw, as "John decided last minute I deserved another chance because I made an honest mistake" bit made me laugh out loud. It was the single most sticks-out-like-a-sore-thumb shoehorned-in bit of exposition.
I will have to see this again. Not in the theater, but when it's released, I will watch it again to be fair to it. I've seen all the other Saws countless times at this point, and while I certainly have favorites, I will watch any of them. As of my very first viewing, I'm pretty sure this is my least favorite. Perhaps because it's all been done before, perhaps because it's been 7 years and I was expecting better. Why bring it back at all if you don't have something new to bring to the torture table? Sure, we got some new traps, but that was a given. Only one of them was particularly interesting. Most of them were kind of yawn-inducing, given what we've already seen in Saw(s) before. It even started with a very similar feel to Saw V - with the "Fatal Five." Five people in one room, in the same exact predicament, all being pulled by their necks towards very sharp blades. Only Saw V did it better because it at least ended with the "oh sh*t we should've been working together from the beginning" lesson.
I was not expecting magic, but I am often surprised by "obvious twists" in movies. Saw(s) have surprised me before. This one was a mash-up of the same old gimmicks, and every one was easy to see coming. Perhaps I should not have expected much, but this was a huge disappointment.