Ralph's Movie Reviews: docudrama

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

MY WINNIPEG

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ann Savage: the Mother
Guy Maddin: Darcy Fehr

REVIEW
Guy Maddin makes bizarre movies best appreciated by those into “niche-cinema”. Fans of Guy Maddin will no doubt love it. The rest of us will not.

This pseudo-documentary of Maddin’s hometown gets off to an unusual start with repeated takes of the Mother reading her lines. It then lurches into black and white out-of-focus shots of a very wintry place with a monotone voice-over by Guy Maddin describing what we see on screen, none of it very interesting. It’s asking too much of anyone to sit through that for very long.

CLASSIFICATION
PG for mature themes and some nudity.

P.S.
Guy Maddin produced, wrote, directed, stars in and even gets a credit as an “additional camera operator”. As I’ve said before, usually the movie is not worth seeing when someone takes on more than two principal roles in making the film. Imagine the results when one person has five?

Sunday, December 31, 2006

THE QUEEN

Docudrama

BACKGROUND
Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch.
Balmoral Castle is the Queen's private Scottish summer estate used during August and September.
10 Downing Street is the central London residence and office of the British Prime Minister.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Helen Mirren: HM Queen Elizabeth II, reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth
Michael Sheen: recently elected British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Helen McCory: his wife Cherie
James Cromwell: the Queen’s consort Philip, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Sylvia Syms: HM The Queen Mother
Alex Jennings: the Queen’s eldest son and heir apparent Charles, HRH the Prince of Wales
Roger Allam: the Queen's private secretary Robin Janvrin

REVIEW
A wonderful character study not only of the Queen but of her advisors as well. There are really good performances by four or five of the cast and even though some of them may not look exactly like the person they portray, they have the mannerisms and tics down pat.
There is no way of knowing exactly what transpired during private conversations between the principals. But the dialogue rings true and that’s what matters.

CLASSIFICATION

for brief strong language (although to my mind the rating hardly seems warranted given the fact there is but a single instance of so-called “strong language”)

P.S.
I was so mesmerised watching the film I spent very little time eating my popcorn and came out of the theatre with the bag three-quarters full. That’s never happened before.

my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.