Consent is a cute short film that plays on the fact that two people should thoroughly discuss sex before actually doing the deed. How thorough? Well you’ll see just as two young adults lean in for the kiss. The language is rather suggestible so don’t play this in front of the kiddies. The film has written and directed by Jason Reitman and won a couple of awards. It’s easily worth a few moments of your time.
Consent
Peaceful Warrior
Peaceful Warrior was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It was familiar in that it told the story of a talented young person who with the help of an enigmatic trainer goes through painful growth physically and spiritually to find out who he really is. The unfamiliar part was that there was no one for the protagonist to beat in this film but himself. There is no real villain. In the beginning I thought I was going to be watching some remake of Karate Kid but what I got was a movie that was inspiring and somewhat thought provoking. There were many times where I was looking for Nick Nolte, who played the trainer, to have some magic powers but except for a few tricks and some dream sequences you begin to wonder if he really has any great abilities at all. In fact I’m not totally sure the character even existed except for in the mind of the protagonist.
The story is about a young and talented gymnast who is training to be in the Olympics. He is having the time of his life but something isn’t quite right for him. It starts in his dreams and leads him to a gas station attendant played by Nick Nolte who offers to teach him the way of the warrior but in order for him to go to the next level, he has to leave some of himself behind. The lead is played by a young actor named Scott Mechlowicz who I’ve never seen before. He carries the part well and is believable in gymnastic action even if it’s probably not him in those parts. I enjoyed the whole movie and left it feeling inspired. I give this film a 4 out of 5 marks.
Blindness
Blindness is a kind of ‘end of the world’ movie. Here the demise of mankind is their loss of site. You never really find out what causes it but you see it start and spread like any other untreatable disease. What happens next is the government’s reaction to something they can neither control nor stop but that’s not all of the story. The movie really seems to find it’s stride when it explores what happens to a specific group of blind people over time once they’re rounded up. Things become very intense and the film paints a tragic and depressing picture of what humanity might become or perhaps already is.
There are a few famililar faces in this movie. Julianne Moore plays the wife of an Eye Doctor who is played by Mark Ruffalo. Julianne’s character is somehow immune to the disease and shares that secret with her sightless husband. The disease does not discriminate so people of all kinds including, doctors, prostitutes, thieves, would-be philosophers, and children find themselves herded together and forming a forced community. It get’s really bad towards the end and parts seem to resemble ‘Lord of the Flies’.
I don’t think I liked any character in this film but that didn’t stop me from watching it through to the end. Watching humanity devolve day by day until they are little more than filthy animals held my attention surprisingly well. I give this movie a 4 out of 5 marks.
Bound
Bound is a crime thriller written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, the same guys who wrote and directed The Matrix. This movie is no Matrix but it is a great movie nonetheless. It’s a noir kind of film and everyone in it is dirty. I say that to express that there are no innocents here. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon provide multiple scenes of girl on girl action and at first I thought that was all the movie was going to be. I might have been satisfied with that too but then the movie turned into this mob movie complete with money laundering, hitmen, blood, and Joe Pantoliano shouting and waving a gun. I had no idea how it was going to end.
The sex between Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon’s characters was intense but not outrageous. Both women played their part well and their sexuality seemed to ooze from the screen and believe it or not, without the sex, the rest of the movie wouldn’t have worked. Once it started being all about the money, the film leapt into suspense mode and never let up until the movie was all but over. It’s easy to know who to root for but since everyone in this movie is a bad guy of some sort, you just don’t know for sure until it’s over. Joe Pantoliano was at his maniacal best in this film, almost as if the role was made for him. I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end and give it an enthusiastic 4.5 out of 5 marks.
Sugar
Sugar tells the story of a young man from the Dominican Republic who tries to make a career for himself in baseball. He’s a pitcher and his ultimate goal is to play for a pro team in the USA and pitch in Yankee Stadium. Sugar, the character is very likeable and easy to feel for. He has to succeed not only to pursue his own dreams but to help his family. He is young and in over his head for most, if not all, of the film. It would be easy to say this movie is all about the plight of it’s title character but that wouldn’t be quite right. It’s about the American dream, what some people will go through to get it and what can happen to them if they fall short. It’s also about immigration.
You’re not likely to recognize any of the films characters. Since the main character is from the DR, and part of the story takes place there, most of the movie is in Spanish so if that’s not your language then you’ll need to invoke the subtitles. That doesn’t take away from the film thought. It is surprising engaging and heart warming as well, though not overly so. This wouldn’t have been a film I would have taken a chance on in the theater but I found it to be a great film to watch at home in intimate company. I give it a 3 and a half out of 4 marks. It came close to getting a 4.