wotiva

An apartment block of misfits in downtown America cope like a disfunctional family with the trials of the day. It's Bunny's (main male lead) Birthday, but he just moves from one thing to another dealing with the ridiculous problems, particularly that of a body.

This was an unusual film for me, because I usually insist on good stories, and the story itself is nothing special. However I LOVED the acting esp. Bunny and his girlfriend. Very much downtown grimey lives and how their life is a bit crap, but they all muddle through and behind it all is the clear but not directly expressed love that they have for each other.

So, this film is probably not for non-Americans or at least people that wouldn't understand American mumbling trite issues to each other embeded in the throw-away culture. For example a scene I loved was simply two guys rattling sports players names to each other and a woman standing by trying to look interested but obviously not interested. It is these scenes and these character interactions that drives the film. At one point early on I did want to stop watching cos I was bored, but I just didn't get that it's a very dear character study of 'downtown Americans on the block'.

So personally, I don't know whether to recommend.. it is a special film because of the acting and the way the characters interact, but I wouldn't watch it again and those looking for drama, action, or story will be disappointed. It's 4 stars for that crowd, but 8 or 9 stars for those that want something different and love a film that's character focussed. Bunny comes across as a great guy, and the occupants of the building are varied ages and backgrounds but all together. Comedy? Very light and not laugh out loud. I have it a 7 stars, but felt compelled to write because it did very well what it was intended to do and is quite unique. A+ to the director.

So let me go over the positives first. Amazing amazing filming of the flights. Not sure how they did it. I don't like air shows, but watching the acrobatics in this film was amazing.

The film goes over the progress toeard being certified as a Thunderbird to give demonstrationas around the world. Displays a dedicated team, working effectively together. Like all documentaries they have a story line. Not sure how contrived it was, but fundamentally the individuals stories was also interesting (though only really touched on their stories briefly.. could easily have been half an hour longer). Good pacing, very upbeat.

What I didn't like.. I've served myself, and I think these guys, while appearing calm logical types, are absolutely insane. 10% of Thunderbird Pilots die. This is an acrobatics demo team but I'm sure that death rate is higher than combat. The tight formations theu fly on are absolutely jaw dropping. Seriously I had tears in my eyes just watching them fly. God bless them, bit seriously, is it worth that death rate? Anyway I highly recommend this film. It literally amd figuratively flew by. Well done to the team that filmed this.

Good and bad.. so let me cover the good first.. So set in plantation era, focusing on a couple of rich black guys and black culture. Black/white tensions, scenes of beautiful rolling cotton fields, a beautiful cast. The panning shots, lighting, scenes are beautiful and really deserve an oscar for the filmography and score. Some of the singing and music was just stunning, and built into the story beautifully. The acting is pretty good, and scenes are really painted out well.

The negative? The story is pretty rambling and weak amd definitely plays second fiddle to the atmosphere of the film. Also, while talking about the past it is solidly in the modern era in its attitudes toward race relations. It's like a modern leftist view of how the plantation era was, with a wakanda like optimism of black relationships. So it's a (modern) 'black' idealist view, making the characters more like charicatures, and similarly white people are depicted as 'crackers' in the most part, though there is some sympathy for the more musical white characters.

So what is this film? An atmosphere piece with great music amd filmography. Did I like it? Yes, it was a beautiful film. And no, it had preconceived ideas of black and white people (nice and fun black people, awful and boring white people). That sheen of discrimination makes it a 'black' film, and through its racially discriminating approach, a little two dimensional. Should you watch it? Sure, it's beautiful and sounds great.