smakawhat

It is at this time in America that we have a fresh update not just of it's gorgeous landscape, but a more modern tale of the open spaces and characters that inhabit it. Throw in a gorgeous cinematography and you have one of the most memorable films I have seen in years.

The Rider focuses on a family, and particularly one son who after an unfortunate competition accident, is stuck not just in a sea of empty direction, but a loss of his true identity.

He is guided by other riding friends, a somewhat dis-interested father, and his disabled younger sister.

This film could be filed with obvious tropes, the big Karate Kid like comeback, family redemption, but instead it has the unique ability to keep things intensely real. The characters don't even seem like they are acting, there is a real sense of the Western camaraderie and landscape out on the plains, a Holden Caulfieldesque genuine relationship with a sister so real as if Salinger wrote it himself, and a look into a culture that has been updated for the 21st century.

The cinematography along with the main characters angst, ooze off the screen in burnt and dark rolling hills of pathos and glory. The images and storyline offer such an intense look in a life that many can only barely grasp. The movie's effect is so striking, that in a particular scene when a simple horse is ridden, it is one of the beautiful, haunting, majestic and gut wrenching images you will ever witness on screen.

Director Chloe Zhao has crafted one of the most amazing looking and storytelling pieces of Americana in ages, while lead actor Brady Jandreau pulls off a character and role with such passion and ease, it's as if he was a modern James Dean and John Wayne all rolled up into one.

A not to be missed film.

Director and screenplay writer Barry Jenkins has managed to craft a whole new experience that is one part meditative, another part long lasting and masterful.

A simple coming of age story is told through gorgeous cinematography, some of the best I have seen on films in years. The film is awash in a sort of "tropical drab", dark hues of blue appropriate moonlight and leaving a refreshed almost improved 80s neon, as the story of "Little" is acted during 3 periods of his life by 3 different actors, all of them equally brilliant.

The film is like a slow rolling ocean wave, one that builds and builds always having a sense of light climax hitting the screen. Plot aside which is for the most non-existent, the actors simply perform wonderfully (all of them) in the film showing the trials and tribulations of a young boy trying to grow up in a dysfunctional one parent household.

I don't think I've ever seen a film where so much expression was conveyed by an actor just simply by the use of his eyes. The 3 actors who play the main character really seemed like the same person, it's astonishing, as they walk through bleached out section 8 walls, between gorgeous palm trees, bright colors, and the beach so nearby that seems to be the respite from the madness so close to home.

The culture and the landscape and story is so uniquely portrayed that it's refreshing. The film pictures Miami bathed wet streets, neon, diverse colors of its people and the places and qualities that surround them with a story that's so unique, but must be so common place about grown African-American men who at their even biggest physical prowess are still children inside.

I left the theater with a sense of feeling how wonderful this was made, but also not crazy about it being a total masterpiece as some critics have claimed. However, it's strength is in making you remember these characters and what the future holds for Little long after the film ends. I still feel even today that I hope "Little" finds out who he really is. I still think about it days after seeing this story, and how Little will be, and perhaps that in its own right makes it a masterpiece.

It has been years since I have written a review, and this film finally prompted one.

It's classic Woody, mixed in with sepia tones and brilliant cinematography. Blue Jasmine was terrific, but Cafe Society falls particularly flat. So don't give me that Woody still doesn't have it in him. But he dropped the ball on this one for a particular reason.

Eisenberg is actually a good fit. He fills the classic niche character 's that are so common in Allen's film. Neurotic, angst driven and often clumsy and clueless. Throw in some Jewish guilt and Eisenberg fits in well. Carrel is fantastic. I also wish somehow Parker Posey had more lines too.

The film actually manages some interesting characters, but is not that plot driven, more on going with situations and atmosphere that is wonderfully accented by brilliant scenery. The film even while short does drag and does fall at parts, even if it takes awhile to get going.

The biggest problem is like a giant elephant in the room and that's Kristen Stewart. Let's face it... the woman CANT ACT to save her life. She's wooden, monotone and emotionless. Watch her on screen is like watching paint dry.

So much time I spent watching this thinking this could actually be an exceptionally good film if someone else was cast in her role.

But in the end, I still can't figure out how this woman even has a job in Hollywood. She's like this in every film I've seen. Horrible.

Better luck next time.