Film Reviews by hp

a pretty dreadful film with an undercurrent of trying to portray an SS soldier as just an ordinary Joe. Perhaps when you have gangster movies which portray thugs as nice humans, or at least understandable, this kind of rubbish follows. Maybe next we get the happy slave trader or the child molester who was kind to animals.

My main residual questions were who funded this and why

Although I enjoyed his earlier film in this set, songs from the second floor, there was something more humorous about it. This one was Beckett at his bleakest: way too down for me and I came away feeling a bit dismal. Not sure there were enough ideas to sustain a full length film - a hint of re-editing outtakes from the previous films?

I am sure you can find something better

a very strange take on comedy...there are some funny moments but at the end i was wondering what got me to choose this film - what reviews did i see which rated it? A touch too much of a director [a la Woody Allen] making films alongside getting therapy mayhap? The opening scene with its direct attempt to shock should've told me all i need to know about a bad taste in the mouth [boom boom]. Essentially it cannot make its mind up what film it is, besides which the direction is unconfident, too many characters are cardboard cut outs, and some of the script is laughable for the wrong reasons...it is a bit amateur tbh

So good to see a decent US film for once: no CGI or gratuitous sex or ludicrous chase scenes. My wife has visited these areas and this is accurate. Serious drug problems amidst the poverty entwined with criminality and clannishness. I usually take my films world-cinema and want a sense of humanity and the lived world. This spoke to me of raw living in the Ozarks and called on my compassion in spite of the darkness. Perhaps the directorial touch of a woman helped but this is cinema as an extension of literatiure not as an adjunct to telly. Great stuff.

a mouthful of earth and roots: this is cinema of a walk across beautiful open country side on a challenging day - it's not pizza hut.

think i'd disagree. Found it centred on Spacey as the only decent actor and only decent lines. while he as on screen, it was 70% worth watching. Other characters were wooden and cartoon like, So much also had to spelled out for the US audience. I had misgivings about the portrayal of the women: note his wife had to consider a dalliance before he does likewise. Typical of USA to take a good idea and make a ham of it: real disappointment

It is breathtaking that millions starve while large sums are spent on films like this: how in God's name did it ever get made? a stunning exercise in vacuity...