Category: Drama

Drama Indie

“The Teacher’s Lounge”

By Brett_G on

7.2

Kids can be assholes… adults can be assholes… you know what? Everyone’s an asshole!

Seriously though, this is an hour and a half of examples of why teachers don’t get paid enough and why we can’t keep any in the profession anywhere in the world. The microcosm illustrating the broader degradation of societal trust in each other and the sinister consequences that closely follow the descent caused by it are on full display here. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been this genuinely uncomfortable in a movie in a long time, for essentially the entire runtime. It’s almost kind of redeemed in the third act, though. Almost… I’m still not quite sure how to interpret the final frames.

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Documentary Drama

“The Zone of Interest”

By Brett_G on

7.6

So… this is an hour and a half of the chainsaw in the motel shower scene from “Scarface,” and should definitely win all the awards for its brilliant sound design.

The devil’s quite literally in the details with this one, and it executes subtlety to near perfection. It’s definitely a thinker, and not a modern blockbuster on the movie IQ scale. To contrast such beauty with such haunting atrocity is a tall task. It’s not a light movie, obviously. When our protagonist family is inconvenienced by the ash of the deceased contaminating the night sky, daring to interrupt their slumber… you’re in for a complicated emotional ride. To have such normal life existing so close to the worst of humanity… it’s a bold choice, and one that I felt paid off by the time the credits rolled.

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Documentary Drama

“The Monk and the Gun”

By Brett_G on

7.1

The chill older gentleman slowly whittling a giant phallus really brought everything together for me. Props to that guy.

A really interesting reflection on the need for government, the ways in which we as people choose to operate said governing body, and human nature as it exists in different communities and cultures. When “democracy fails” because too many people agree… that might indicate a problem, no? No matter the catastrophe though, James Bond will be the glue that holds us all together until the bitter end.

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Documentary Drama Throwback

“All The President’s Men”

By Brett_G on

7.4

Better as a book…

Not that the movie was bad, and I understand it’s a classic and an important story. However, the book was better in this case. I know this is sacrilege as a movie critic.

The performances are spot on and the script really does a great job of hitting the essential marks in the story, but there’s only so much they could fit into the runtime, and there was simply too much to fit into a reasonable runtime. Definitely one of those “Hollywood can’t write something this crazy” stories, that Hollywood struggled to translate to the silver screen.

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Comedy Drama Indie

“Scrambled”

By Brett_G on

7.7

An eggcelent film.

Reminiscent of “The Pod Generation” from last year, this one delves into the complicated, beautiful, messy dynamics of reproductive health in modern society. Leah McKendrick absolutely kills it here. Her performance, especially a tender moment in the third act alongside Vee Kumari had me on the edge of my seat and bought in from the first frame. Never have I ever expected myself to actually laugh out loud during a scene set in a miscarriage support group, but here we are… only to mere minutes later be inspired and a little misty eyed by the ensuing speech. Movie didn’t play it safe, and I appreciated that. The exploration of this territory with the necessary nuance and levity to counter the natural weight has been a renaissance of sorts.

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