dgcasey

They had us after the first one. They announced a sequel and we all cheered. We waiting with bated breath and hoped for deliverance from the monster that was 2020. Then, Christmas day arrived and with it, the new Wonder Woman movie and we found that 2020 had stretched forth its cursed hand and delivered to us a completely forgettable film. This has left us to wonder, if WW (2017) could be so good, how could WW 84 be so bad?

I love to see movies come along that deal with artists and their craft. The Girl With The Pearl Earring or Vincent and Theo. Even enjoyed Art School Confidential because it hurt to laugh at the truth that was evident in the movie about a young, talented artist that has all his hopes and dreams beat out of him by the modern nonsense crowd at the school.

But, I digress. Local Color is a lovely movie, again about a talented, young artist, looking for some guidance and mentorship from an aging Russian master. Getting his persistent foot in the door was harder than he imagined, but wedge it in he did. The movie follows their journey during a mid-70's summer, a journey that takes the young man deeper into the world of classical art and one that takes the old man out of his despair and drowning in the bottle of vodka in his hands at all times.

Stahl and Morgan are great, going back and forth at each other, sometimes cutting deep into tender feelings, sometimes soothing those wounds. Perlman was fantastic in his role as the stuck-up, modern art snob and the dinner scene where he gets skewered is worth the price of admission all by itself.

That is the scene that probably earned all the One Star ratings here. Those that think modern art is somehow relevant will not like that scene at all and will be slobbering all over themselves to get in here and write a scathing review. The rest of us that like real art will be howling with laughter when Curtis gets shown how big a fool he really is.

I loved this movie so much I made sure to buy the DVD new so as to help the filmmaker, George Gallo, make another payment on that mortgage he took out to make the movie. You can find out about that at Artist Mentors Online.

If you like good movies that don't have any gun play, no bloodshed, no gratuitous sex scenes, then this movie is for you. Oh, there is that one part where the 20-year-old guy kisses the 36-year-old woman, but I'm sure you'll live through it. What a cougar she could have been. It did get an R-rating, but that was for the use of the "F" word by the old man, but it sounded quite natural coming from him. So you probably won't want your little ones watching this one with you. Wait until they get to junior high school and can teach you even better cuss words.

Being a ballroom dancer this was pretty much a "required viewing." It was a little different from what I expected, but it was still worth the time. I've read the feelings of a lot of dancers who have rated this movie lower than I did. I would guess that they come by their opinions based on the fact that dancing to them, is a competition sport and that's how they always look at it. My feeling towards dancing would probably be more in line with those of Mary Ann Hotchkiss and Mr. Keane. "Dance is a very powerful drug Mr. Keane. If embraced judiciously, it can exorcise demons, access deep seated emotions and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed. But, one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is ever to reap its rewards." Get this movie, curl up on the couch with your honey and enjoy a very nice, sweet movie about searching for, and finding reasons for going on, even when life seems so pointless.

The reason people will trash this movie is because it has religious overtones. Well, I guess I should say, it is a religious movie, no overtones about it. If you haven't been paying attention lately, anything that comes out of Hollywood with any kind of a religious message is going to be attacked, no matter the quality of the movie.

We should all remember the savaging of The Passion before it even hit the theaters. People were tearing that movie apart long before they had even seen it. The experience of this movie is no different.

Jim Rohn said many years ago that good will always be attacked by evil. Always. There is absolutely no reason for this film to be rated 2.9. While I wouldn't give it a 10, I would have rated it 7 or 8. But the story that this movie tells is that of good people struggling with their faults and trying to rise above them. But, they try to do this rising by calling on Jesus for strength and there are a lot of people in this country, and around the world for that matter, that can't stomach the thought of anyone turning their hearts towards God and asking for His help.

Those who were expecting some big budget, glitzy Hollywood blockbuster were going to be disappointed. The budget on this film was five million dollars. That kind of budget wouldn't even buy twenty minutes of screen time from someone like Jim Carrey or George Clooney, let alone shoot the whole movie. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was budgeted at twenty million (which is ultra-low budget by current Hollywood standards). Does that mean that it was four times better than The Gospel? Not by a long shot. I'll watch The Gospel again, but I don't think I'll feel any remorse or loss if I never see Eternal Sunshine again. And a lot of Jim's current movies will leave me quite satisfied, just not that one.

So, you ask why this film is rated so low here? This is your answer. Good will always come under attack from evil. Always.

I don't know how many times I've read reviews of this movie that slammed it because "the Japanese version is better." No, it isn't. The Japanese version "different" and different is good. Okay, the Japanese version deals with the social stigmatism of showing off in public and ballroom dancing is one target of their uptightness. That's a great angle to tell a story from.

In the U.S., obviously, we don't have that kind of social convention. We have a totally different outlook on such things, but they can run quite parallel to the Japanese way of life. In the American version, John Clark has pretty much everything he could ask for. A beautiful wife, two great kids, a nice home and much more. And he is bored out of his skull and has no idea why. When he finds that he loves ballroom dancing and then is found out by his wife, he doesn't have to deal with the social implications of public displays as in the Japanese version, but the embarrassment and heartache of having to admit that his "perfect life" was missing something.

Though our society doesn't condemn you for wanting to dance, or more specifically, ballroom dance, you will find out how many morons there are around you that will assume that if you are a guy and you love to dance, you must be gay. Link Peterson was absolutely correct in keeping his passion secret for as long as he did and he was dead right on about the reaction that would occur if the people in the office found out about it.

So I give this film ten stars just because, as a dance movie, it has great dancing. As a romance, it shows what can happen when secrets are kept and how much better off our relationships would be if we didn't try so hard to hide them. Get this movie and enjoy a good story and quit worrying so much about how Japanese society is "this" and Japanese society is "that."