My First Weekend this year was Just Outstanding!

(Notes on my rating system at the bottom.)

Here is what I saw:

----------------FRIDAY------------------------

GhostLight

Super emotional drama about a broken family, and their redemption via Shakespeare. So good!

Overall - 5 Stars out of 5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 5/5

Brain Food - 4/5

Themes: Family dynamics, Grief, Shakespeare

ENO

Not a bio pic - Eno is very uninterested in that. It is about Eno and his fascinating creative process. Which includes this film. A cerebral film. Good for a select audience, which includes me.

Overall - 3 stars out of 5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 1/5

Brain Food - 3/5

Themes: Creative processes, algorythmic music, avant garde music.

-----------------------SATURDAY----------------------

FRIDA

A biopic- a sensational biopic of a sensational life. Uses a vast archive of film plus Frida's extensive diaries, and extensive artwork. "In her own words". Extremely well done.

Overall - 5/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 5/5

Brain Food - 5/5

Themes: Art, Artists, Feminism, Pain.

SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY

Documentary of Russian rooftop artists. A love story, ie, lots of personal drama. Kinda Crazy.

Overall - 4.5/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 4/5

Brain Food - 3/5

Themes: Romantic Relationship, Artistry, Risk, Internet-focused Life.

THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP

The Story of the USA for Africa "We Are The World" legendary global pop song, told as a heist movie. Oh man, so much archival material available, and incredible story telling. My expectations were low for this one, and boy was I wrong.

Overall - 5/5

Engagement - 6/5

Emotions - 5/5

Brain Food - 5/5

Themes: 60 superstars trapped in a room! Not so much about the actual music; this is about a LOAD of amazing musicians setting aside their competition, to do something great. So great.

THELMA

Old lady gets scammed. Doesn't Take It! Comedy, family drama.

Overall - 4/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 4/5

Brain Food - 3/5

Themes: Internet fraud, old people, friendship.

-------------------SUNDAY-------------------

LOVE ME

Long after humanity’s extinction, a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love.

(My expectations were not high for this one. Again, I was wrong.)

Overall - 4/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 4/5

Brain Food - 4/5

Themes: AI Love, Human Love Relationships, Internet-focused Life. Betelgeuse.

GAUCHO GAUCHO

A Gaucho Gaucho is a Cowboy's Cowboy. In far-north Argentina, where Cowboying is still a thing. An amazing portrait of the (probable) last generation of Gauchos.

Overall - 4/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 3/5

Brain Food - 5/5

Themes: Old people, Argentina, Families, Horses.

BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY

A film from modern China. A family drama. Conflict between two sons. Became a horror film in the last 5 minutes in a very clumsy way. I am still perplexed.

Overall - 3/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 3/5

Brain Food - 4/5

Themes: family drama, wealth inequality.

I enjoyed a peek into Urban life in 2023 China.

PRESENCE

A family drama in a haunted house. Pretty good family drama. Weak as a horror film.

Overall - 3/5

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 3/5

Brain Food - 3/5

Themes: family drama. A very nice old house. Teenagers. Rape using drugs. Murder.

The supernatural part was not developed very well.

-----------------My Rating System---------------------

I am a terrible movie critic, because I really have very little to say about movies after seeing them. And I don't care. What I care about is how engaging a movie is - ie, did it catch my attention and hold it?; Emotions = how powerfully did the movie effect me?; Brain Food = how important are the themes in this movie - how much does this contribute to my understanding of the world and humans. I like foreign movies as they teach me about life in other countries, and for other people. I am a bleeding heart liberal, so I like movies about social (in)justice, minorities winning. I like biopics about great people that I really don't know much about from Miss Americana to Judy Blum. And unfortunately violence seems to be one of my themes.

(BAD) Example: 10 Days in Mariupol (Sundance 2023)

From inside Mariupol, the first 10 days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The toughest film I have ever watched, as Russian bombardment destroyed a city that used to have 400,000 citizens of which about 5% (20,000) people died in those 10 Days.

Overall - 11/5 --- Everyone who votes should see this film. Doubts about supporting Ukraine - FU!

Engagement - 5/5

Emotions - 22/5

Depth - 22/5

Themes: Death.

Yeah, that wasn't helpful because that film was over the top. I was nauseaous from minute 5. It was horrible. And real, which is the point.