moonfan11

It's astonishing how many defensive fans will show up and incorrectly and unfairly review a very very poorly acted (by Madonna) and scripted film. This is very misleading. The original film, directed by female Director Lina Wertmuller was a wild, controversial and beautifully photographed battle of the sexes and political, and even ethnic critique of Italy. All the controversy the original film created was organic, not manufactured. I'll admit I have a love of the original largely, because it just randomly appeared (heavily edited ) on television during a romantic evening!

The remake is a huge failure solely because Madonna cannot act and because Guy Ritchie did not understand the nuances of Italian class, culture and identity. Madonna's speaking voice has an intrinsic insincerity. Throughout the film her self-conscious, poorly trained speaking voice grates with wretched insincerity. The rest of the cast is far above her. In fact, Jeanne Tripplehorn would have been better cast as a lead.

Nailah Jefferson is an excellent director. There are only a few documentary filmmakers in her generation who are as talented. This is a very well edited, meticulously researched and beautifully executed documentary about not only the first Black/multi racial supermodel, but one of the most mercurial and mint original public figures of the 1960s and 70s. Donyale Luna literally defines and defied virtually all expectations of what a public figure of any race should be. The background score is superlative along with the moving and surreal animated sequences based on Donyale Luna's own artwork. Jefferson and her team should be praised for officially bringing Donyale Luna back fully into the consciousness decades after she faded into niche level obscurity.

That said omitting documentation that Donyale Luna identified as multiracial and was ancestrally multi racial with a biracial mother (her maternal grandfather immigrated to the United States from Germany ) was a bad call. Donyale Luna boldly challenged and had little time for racial constructs. Starting in her teens she devised different stories about her heritage alongside an evolving racial identity. This has both intrigued and angered scholars and pedestrian fans of hers alike. Thus even a brief survey of her genealogy should've been top priority for any documentarian. Her mother was biracial and we're not told this? Why? Culturally, ancestrally and unapologetically she was both Black and multiracial The arcane One Drop construct that Donyale Luna herself eschewed was disappointing to see here.

Despite the great research and archival material many questions remain answered and key events omitted or barely illuminated. Donyale Luna was the only Black/multi racial female to be part of the major white centered artistic and cultural movement movements of the late 60s and 70s. Unfortunately Warhol's Factory is barely touched upon. The Rolling Stones Rock 'n' Roll Circus, (the most storied rock event after Woodstock) is not even mentioned by name! London overall, including a racist incident she and Mia Farrow experienced at the Cavendish hotel is unexplored, and her work in Italian cinema barely covered. Public figures like Keith Richards and Peggy Moffat appear and we're not given subtitles.

Granted Jefferson is a millennial so these cultural phenomenons and figures are either completely unknown or not as important to her generation as they are to Boomers and Generation X which is perfectly understandable. It also leaves the door open for someone with a vast knowledge of pop-culture history to do a deeper survey of her career. And in all fairness documentaries simply can't cover everything.

Structurally the first half is a standard documentary, most of the second half is more of a reality style look at her daughter Dream and her father, Donyale's second husband, Luigi, (her first, mysterious marriage is not mentioned). The timeline of the documentary is frustratingly told out of sequence. While Nailah Jefferson stated this was to create an avant-garde feel in keeping with its subject, an out of sequence timeline for a person largely shrouded in mystery has its limitations.

For instance, the grotesque racism expressed by fashion titan Diana Vreeland regarding Donyale being cut from Vogue's Great Caravan photo shoot occurred in 1965/1966. The recounting of this event by Jefferson in v/o conversation with Beverly Johnson, (whose response serves as one of the most important Black female moments EVER captured on film) makes it appears to have taken place in the 1970s. Understandably Jefferson wanted to save this powerful moment for the last third of the documentary, but implying that she might've been living in France or Italy by this point means we don't get the complete snake pit portrait of what the the New York fashion world was for her as a Black/multiracial woman when she was starting out. There was a reason why she never returned to the USA after the late 60s. The truncated timeline gives you the impression that she was still working in US fashion into the 1970s.

Jefferson is an excellent director and there was no better medium to bring Donyale Luna back to the public consciousness than Donyale Luna SUPERMODEL. While she ideally could have taken more chances regarding self identity, racial heritage or answered more questions via her death coupled with her extensive drug use (played down to a baffling extent here) the subject matter awaits future historians and filmmakers.

Matt Riddlehoover has directed one of the best documentaries -perhaps thee best documentary thus far of the 21st century. Not only is Riddlehoover meticulous and even handed, he has an artisan's eye for building an interview with archival footage, stock footage and ephemera eg newspaper clippings and letters. His extreme talent is why he was able to bring his beautiful grandmother in-law to life for all of us to know today. Her life has enriched enumerable people via this amazing documentary. We get in-depth interviews with Vivian Liberto Cash's four daughters; Roseanne, Cindy, Kathy, and Tara. We don't hear any other interviewees. This is important, because not only does it keep the documentary on a linear trajectory but who better to clear up all the lies and misinformation about Vivian Liberti Cash Distin than her own children?

Vivian prior to the release of MY DARLING VIVIAN was solely known via the vicious and false portrayal of her as a villain that was put forth in the hagiographic film WALK THE LINE and for the false and frankly bizarre lies surrounding her verified ancestral narrative. As Rosanne Cash puts it unstintingly, "my mother faded into the sort of negative obscurity."

In My Darling Vivian we meet a devout Catholic Sicilian American woman who was essentially running her own family household when she was a young girl because of her mothers alcoholism. She fell in love with Johnny Cash at 17 and they spent the next three years passionately in love long-distance writing letters literally to each other almost every day! He sang to her over the phone and even sent her real to reel tapes of himself proclaiming his undying love for her in song!

The documentary explains how they went from married couple to newlyweds to parents of two girls to Johnny Cash, becoming literally world famous within the span of about only 24 months. Most importantly, this destroys the entire Walk The Line negative narrative of Vivian. Rather than hate the music industry and Johnny's passion for music it's clear that Vivian supported him and his career 110%. She was with him (when she wasn't watching the children) at his shows, at the Ryman theater/grand old Opry, and was so proud of him. We see how the success allowed him to buy a home in Memphis and we see his stunning archival home movies of Johnny Cash, his parents and Vivian's family, etc. Vivian and Johnny were happy living a wondrously romantic and at times naïve mid century life.

As Johnny Cash became more famous, he began to challenge and speak out against injustices from the perspective of someone who had come (literally) from nothing. To some this may seem naïve now like Johnny dressing up as a Native American and claiming Native American ancestry, we know it was all sincere. Johnny Cash showing tolerance for the downtrodden didn't sit well with the original country music fans from the deep deep conservative south. The Far Right didn't like him hanging out with Bob Dylan, being part of the counterculture, etc. This is why they targeted both Johnny and Vivian whose marriage has been over three years before due to infidelity on the part of Cash. Not because Vivian was "Black" or "Mixed" she was definitely not - that's been verified via some of the most detailed genealogy out there. (The whole bizarre "one drop" "gotcha" aspect of one multi racial *second great grandmother* out of 15 all white great grandparents nonwithstanding-had Vivian been Black their never would've been a Johnny Cash.)

Vivian's true verifed narrative is an essential part of understanding her because the Sicilian matriarch, the devout Catholic, the devoted mother, and wife is an archetype. That's mostly gone now. It was a big part of the mid century, and how many women's lives were so family and home focused. Her paternal grandparents had both come over on a boat from Sicily and had built up a respectable grocery trade in San Antonio. Her mother, Irene Robinson, who was Irish, and German was an alcoholic and Vivian had to shore up the ends that she was not meeting as a parent in the household. This was not that uncommon during the mid century. Then we get a window into the façade that was the nuclear home, the suburbs, and later, the gorgeous home and the beautiful clothes, and the great matriarchs and what they had to endure. When Johnny Cash became famous infidelity, started pretty much from the get-go, and while Vivian was able to live with it for awhile eventually Johnny Cash just stopped coming home and then was maintaining a high profile relationship with June Carter. We see the anguish, the heartbreak of Vivian, and it is not easy to watch. This was an era where women depended on their husbands for everything, and couldn't even get a bank account without their husbands permission. Not only was her dream and her lifelong commitment coming to an end, but it would play out in front of the entire world the of the common "mythic" love story of Johnny and June.

However, Vivian was able to end marriage, and even if she was not fully able to move on the documentary shows how she made sure her daughters lives stayed cohesive. She continues on as a mother and a matriarch. At the very end of the documentary, we hear her own voice for the first time and she explains in her own words her view..

Again, I can't recommend this documentary enough. Just go in knowing that you're going to get nothing regarding the rumors. There's no "passing" or "hiding black ancestry" proverbial, gossip because that never existed and there isn't an unsupportive, bitter wife either there's just simply one very beautiful human being.

"Are you there? God? It's me, Margaret" is the book that most girls read from 1970 until 1990. It's a landmark story for girls that's why I was disappointed by some of the changes. They should've stuck as close to the book as they could've. That said the acting was excellent. I had never seen Rachel McAdams in anything and now I understand why everyone thinks she's amazing! The more difficult aspects of the story were not flinched at and you really felt that young girls were being centered in this female story with no apologies. The lead actress as Margaret has a very bright future ahead of her. She was excellent. A natural talent.

I really appreciated the attempts to be inclusive in this version of the classic Judy Blume novel. The the addition of black characters in 1970s New Jersey suburbs didn't feel forced or unrealistic even if it probably was. This is a film for girls and as many girls as possible should feel seen . I don't use that language lightly

But 1970 was only just barely approximated in clothing and in music. That could've been much better and thus more powerful. Sometimes it felt like it was the early 90s as far as clothing ( like Margarets father, wearing wildly mismatched prints like a hippie) and decor or it was the late 70s.

But the big misstep was the character of Laura Danker. While the actress they cast was lovely and talented, Laura is supposed to be very busty and very blonde like she could be in her late teens or 20s. The girl they cast was just a tall. The character is an important character because it shows the harm that the jealousy and s*ut shaming can do to a young girl who's endowed and developed early. Because the actress was simply tall, you didn't understand the isolation that Laura was going through.

This is truly one of the most unique and inventive series I've ever seen. Do not miss it! Those who enjoyed 2018's excellent SORRY TO BOTHER YOU won't be disappointed. Boots again explores themes of race, alienation, code switching, hope, family, community and exploitation for his own unique brand of surrealistic satire. It didn't surprise me when Boots recently presented both SORRY TO BOTHER YOU and BRITANNIA HOSPITAL (Lindsay Anderson 1982) as he shares a well reasoned criticism of capitalism with Anderson. Like Lindsay Anderson, Boots will not bend on employing surrealism even if it alienates audiences used to generic plot lines. See it now!

Despite a few releases on VHS this magnificent film has yet to transferred and released in any format. If you love exotic cats and you cherish the beauty that we still have left on this planet and this is the film for you. It's astonishing footage I believe that was shot over the course of about three years. For a time span ofthe late 1960s into the early 1980s mountain lions were featured in numerous films. I believe there are 10 live action films in total from Benji the Hunted to Charlie The Lonesome cougar to Run Cougar Run etc. Unlike other mountain lion films this primarily takes place in the wild with no human interaction until the end. The narrator is excellent. But most of all it's scenery scenery that looks like Montana or Idaho that's so beautiful. Especially the closing shot. This film deserves to be released in the 21st century. It's a masterpiece.

As someone who has seen this film from start to finish about half a dozen times I highly recommend multiple viewings. Because we're almost never offered filmmaking on physical film these days the nuances are not as easy to catch because it's easy to be dazzled by the world class cinematography of M. David Mullen, the beautiful cast, exquisite love scenes, the costumes and of course the unrivaled directorial style of Anna Biller. Subsequent viewings will yield a much more serious film where the retro and mise en scene recede somewhat and the very dramatic and tragic nature of the story comes to the forefront.

Anna Biller is one of the world's greatest film directors with a criminally underrated selection of excellent earlier work.Those complaining about the length please consider that we've all seen Clockwork Orange multiple times which of course is a masterpiece within cinematic history. Thus we've all had to watch Alex sign forms in triplicate and march around the prison to Elgar once he's admitted. Perhaps Kubrick could of cut that lengthy sequence too but he didn't because it was his work of art. It just isn't about fitting everything into a 90 minute format or into some mass brand feature. A director has a specific vision. I don't see how the musical and Lord Summer-isle castle sequences in the once derided (and now wholly sacred) Wicker Man have any time variance to the Renaissance or strip club scenes in TLW. The scope of the mock Renn wedding is important because it feeds Elaine's delusions that she's achieving her goal of being loved. Back at the tea room she's showing off the fake ring like it's some pre engagement ring. (Spoiler alert) Most importantly after literally savoring Grif's death, a clinically insane Elaine wholly transports back to the wedding to relive her dream of being loved, married and riding away fulfilled on a white horse. My own take on the end is that like the last ten minutes of Lindsay Anderson's "If..." the film starts to break into surrealism. Just as Anderson has the "dead" head master pulled out alive from a filing cabinet to shake hands with the student shooters we all know that Grif would not have gone back to Elaine's flat after helping her escape the lynch mob in his patrol car. She has killed him in some other way and is perhaps institutionalized? Seeing how mentally ill Elaine is over weddings and fanfare makes the length of the movie as is, even more essential.

But that's not to say this film isn't a lot of fun! In fact a complete delight with some Black comedy among its many genre defying elements. Splendid performances were coaxed out of the actors by the director, specifically the Anna Biller perennial, Jared Sanford. An exceptional actor with a beautiful speaking voice, Sanford plays Gael, a character not that far off from one of those Dr. F***/ Laurel Canyon types that migrated to Sonoma County in the 80s. Reborn as a New Ager, practicing their craft with utmost sincerity while still hitting on girls a 1/3 their age. Gain Keyes who turns in a brilliant performance not unlike the two leads in the Reincarnation of Peter Proud (Michael Sarrazin and Tony Stephano), English actress Trish Waddell and the Michael Chabon-like Jeffery Wayne Parise round out the stellar cast.

Ultimately The Love Witch screenplay is about all women who've tirelessly created a relationship with a partner and found failure after failure; abuse after abuse and abandonment after abandonment. The fact that the lead actress is exquisitely beautiful is not that remarkable because we all know beautiful women don't have a guarantee of a perfect life with men. Lead actress Elaine (played by the staggeringly talented Samantha Robinson) decides that she's had enough of abuse and she takes charge by using witchcraft as a vengeful talisman in attempt to be loved.

From start to finish The Love Witch is a masterpiece which will only grow more in stature as years progress.