Tag: dramas

Disclaimer: one of the topics of the film is rape, so I give some brief descriptions of rape allegations as depicted in the film.

Last week I watched an excellent movie called Atonement. It’s the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. When I was in ninth grade I remember reading a lot of books and Ian McEwan’s Atonement was one of these books. I didn’t have a dictionary with me to help look up all the big vocabulary words so I had a pretty difficult time reading the book. I also learned this technique called long smooth underline when I was in a reading comprehension class, and when you do long smooth underline you put your hand under the words and move your hand across the pages to help with reading the sentences. But the thing about long smooth underline is that it is called long smooth underline for a reason; it takes time and it helps to slow down when you read so you can understand what you are reading. I was very impatient so I thought if I just speed-read Atonement I can finish it and be on my merry way. But as I’m writing this, I’ve told you nothing of the plot because I read it so fast that I don’t remember the plot and thus probably need to go back and reread the book. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because I really did enjoy the writing. I’m just ashamed I didn’t remember the plot of the book.

But anyway, these two young ladies in my Spanish class saw me racing through the book and one of them asked, “Are you really reading that fast?” And the other girl saw the book cover and said, “I love the movie!” I hadn’t seen the movie because I swore off R-rated films during that time. I thought, “I’m not 17 yet, so I can’t see this movie.” But after so many years and after finally watching the trailer and loving it, I decided, “Yep, it’s time for me to watch this movie.” So I rented it on Google Play and I must say, it was one of the best movies I have seen.

One thing I loved about this movie was the acting. I think when I was in middle school, I watched the Academy Awards and they showed a clip of Atonement, and the acting was just so brilliant. I have seen Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Little Women and absolutely love her acting, but I hadn’t seen her earlier work, so this was my first time seeing Saoirse Ronan when she was younger. She brought so much to her role as the young version of Briony Tallis, and her and Keira Knightley both played their roles really well. I also love James McAvoy; I haven’t seen too many films with him in it to be honest, but last year I watched a movie he was in called The Last King of Scotland, which, is the film adaptation of the novel The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden. Reading a book is definitely a different experience from watching the movie; I read the novel by Giles Foden the same year I read Atonement, but maybe I was just too young to understand the plot or I read the book too quickly. But watching the movie The Last King of Scotland, oh my gosh….it definitely is a film I am glad I saw because the acting was so excellent, but one of those films that shook me out of my skin to the point where I don’t think I need to see the film again because it’s so engrained in my mind. James McAvoy plays a doctor named Nicholas Garrigan, who goes to Uganda to be a doctor to dictator Idi Amin. My heart was beating out of my chest because the whole atmosphere of the film is so disturbing, but James McAvoy and Forest Whitaker both acted the hell out of their roles. To be honest, I know acting is a job for these people, but seriously after watching that movie I thought, How can you play these two characters and not go home at the end of the day feeling shook? Because as the viewer, I was just so mesmerized by the dedication they both brought to their roles. Nicholas lets it go to his head that he is the personal doctor of Idi Amin, and he gains access to all these influential people and parties, but it comes at a HUGE psychological, emotional, mental and (gruesome) physical cost. I saw as James McAvoy’s character went from being this seemingly innocent white guy who just wants to go to Uganda and help people to someone easily manipulated by power and influence and then brought quickly back to Earth by the terrifying reality that the guy he kissed up to is not the guy he thought he was, and the last half of the film left me on the edge of my seat (and also closing my eyes) because Nicholas really sees what kind of guy Amin is and that he can’t just pretend like he wasn’t somehow involved in these human rights abuses Amin committed because he becomes not just Idi Amin’s personal doctor but also his confidant, so whatever Nicholas spills about Amin’s corruption to others has severe (and very bloody) consequences. All that to say, James McAvoy is a very talented actor and in Atonement he was also amazing.

The movie delves into some pretty deep themes. One is the theme of forgiveness. Briony accuses Robbie for a crime he didn’t commit, and she has to carry that guilt with her for many years. Her sister, Cecilia, won’t talk to her anymore, and of course neither will Robbie because he went to prison for the allegations against him. Even when Briony comes to Robbie and Cecilia’s house to apologize, they can’t forgive her and just want her to leave them alone. I think what got me though was that the apology never got to happen because of some tragic events that precluded it . Robbie brought Cecilia happiness and love, and to see that taken away from her was devastating, and so she couldn’t forgive her sister for what she did. Another theme is perspective, because the movie shows the perspectives of the events that went down from Briony’s perspective but also I got to see another perspective of what actually happened. Briony finds out that another man raped her cousin, not Robbie, and that sends her into an even deeper spiral of guilt. Allegations are a serious thing, and these allegations left a serious scar on Cecilia and Briony’s relationship as sisters, and Cecilia lost all trust in Briony.

There was one important scene of the movie that takes place at Dunkirk. I had seen the movie Dunkirk a while ago, and absolutely loved it. Atonement doesn’t focus a lot on the Dunkirk evacuation, but so much happens on that beach in so short a time and the way the scene was shot was brilliant. It kind of reminded me of how 1917, another war drama, was shot in what looked like a single continuous take. The film really illustrated how horrifying World War I was and the risks and dangers that two men have to take to go through enemy lines and deliver the message they are assigned to deliver. As they travel long distances to deliver the message, they witness horrors that no one should ever have to witness (I think when they have to go through No Man’s Land it left a pretty indelible image on my memory) While watching the Dunkirk scene of Atonement, I wasn’t prepared to see the horses being shot to death but I think it just reminded me how hopeless everyone felt during this war and the Dunkirk evacuation seemed to be everyone’s last chance at finding hope and going home after the trauma and pain they suffered in World War II. Robbie and his comrades see people riding on an old merry go round set, singing, sitting by the beach, running around the beach naked and doing other activities. However, it’s tough for Robbie because he has to wait until he can go home since there are so many soldiers trying to get home, too, so he is forced to bear this suffering even further.

I really related to Briony’s dreams as a writer. Throughout the film, Briony is always writing. I also saw parallels between the characters Briony and Jo March in Little Women, both played by Saoirse Ronan, because both Briony and Jo love to write. Even when Briony gets older and works as a nurse during the war, she goes up into the attic and writes stories. The film shows how writing is such a vulnerable and personal thing, because Briony’s novel is based on her real-life experiences. She writes the novel because what happened in the novel wasn’t the full story in real life. In Briony’s novel she apologizes to Robbie and Cecilia, but when she is being interviewed as an adult she reveals that she never got to to go Cecilia’s and apologize because both Cecilia and Robbie died during the war. Her writing the novel was her way of helping Cecilia and Robbie find happiness since she still feels like she robbed them of their happiness in real life.

So it’s almost midnight and I am fading. But overall, this was an excellent movie worth watching. Since it’s a film about war there are some pretty heavy scenes (one especially when Briony is in the hospital and all the soldiers come in with pretty severe injuries and she treats one soldier with a serious injury) but it really is an excellent movie. And the film score was so beautiful. I haven’t seen Joe Wright’s other movies, but he definitely directed the hell out of this movie because it was good. It made me want to read the book Atonement again.

Atonement. 2007. Directed by Joe Wright. Rated R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality.

This Saturday I watched the movie Belfast, which came out in 2021. I saw during the Oscars it got a lot of praise and many people said it was a really good film, so I decided to finally watch it. Honestly I was a teary mess after watching it. Within the first five minutes I was blowing my nose and crying tears. It was just a really powerful movie. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who I just saw in the film Dunkirk. It is based on Branagh’s life growing up in the 1960s in Belfast, Ireland. The main character in the movie, Buddy, and his family live through political unrest on the streets and struggle with money, and his dad is always on business in England. The family doesn’t want to leave Belfast because they have such strong roots there, but due to the violence they witness each day they are faced with whether to go with their dad and move to England permanently or stay in Belfast.

It has a really powerful message about home and never forgetting your roots and memories of your life and childhood. When Buddy is talking with his grandfather about the family moving to England, Buddy says he wants his grandfather and grandmother to come with them to England, but the couple wants to stay in Ireland because they have such strong ties there even with the unrest going on. The beginning was super intense because Buddy is just out playing in the street like an everyday kid and enjoying playing with his friends, but then he turns around and sees across from him people shoving each other, yelling and throwing things. The way the camera does it is powerful because it seems time slows down and the fighting in the background is muffled, but as it turns around we see Buddy standing paralyzed, not knowing whether to run or stay because what he is witnessing is so terrifying and vivid. Then someone throws a dangerous object at him and the children and families on the other side, and his mom has to run out and shield him from the fighting. This movie showed me that war can really impact the lives of not just adults, but also children. Buddy watches television with his brother, but also can’t always just go outside and pretend like the unrest doesn’t exist because he and his family deal with it every day.

I’m glad I watched this film because it’s been a really long time since I have been to Ireland. When I was in middle school I took a trip to Ireland and I’m not sure if we went to Belfast, but I definitely remember going to Sneem and Dublin. I was probably too cranky and teenager-y to appreciate Ireland at the time and really didn’t know much about it other than what I had read about during orientation before going on the trip, but it was definitely a beautiful place to be. But I only visited there for a few days and of course, with any place, there is only so much you experience in a few days compared to living there your entire life. As I get older and have studied about world history and read more books, watched movies and listened to people’s stories, I have learned that everyone’s experience about growing up somewhere is a part of who they are. I also didn’t know Van Morrison was from Ireland; I grew up listening to “Brown-Eyed Girl” and so many other hits by him, and so I really loved the music for Belfast because a lot of the songs were by Van Morrison.

The acting was incredibly powerful. I saw Ciaran Hinds in There Will Be Blood and loved his acting in that one, and I loved his acting as the grandpa in Belfast. I also love Judi Dench and loved her role as the grandmother in this movie. The mom also played an amazing role; I cried because there was one scene where she has to run after Buddy because he and his friend are looting one of the stores, and the friend pressures Buddy to steal something from the shop, and when his mom finds out she freaks out and tells him to put the stuff he is stealing back even though it’s stuff they really want but cannot afford. She and her family are sitting in the living room and she cries because she has grown up in Belfast her whole life and has known the community for such a long time, but everything has changed due to the political unrest and no one can live daily life peacefully without the threat of war. But she knows that if they continue to stay in Belfast during this tumultuous time, they are constantly going to be living in fear of war. At the beginning when Buddy encounters the unrest, the family’s car is destroyed when people rioting light the car on fire and it explodes. This shows again how Buddy can’t just live a blissful childhood because he witnesses trauma and war outside his house nearly every day. However, he does get to experience some sweet moments, such as the cute girl he has a crush on in class and wants to marry someday. And the time he and his family are out dancing and his dad is singing and dancing with his mom to the popular song “Everlasting Love” by Love Affair (the first version and only version I heard growing up was the one by Gloria Estefan so it wasn’t until I saw this film that I heard this version of the song.)

A few days ago I watched this incredible film called Biutiful. It came out in 2010 and was directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. I had seen some of his other films, like Birdman and Babel, so I was sort of familiar with his style of directing. But I hadn’t watched his movies in a long time, so seeing Biutiful felt like a new cinematic experience for me. Also I loved the trailers (I rented the DVD from the library and the films were all from Lionsgate Films, such as Rabbit Hole and Winter’s Bone, which I want to see. I really love drama films and these are drama films. There was also a movie starring Will Ferrell called Everything Must Go that I want to watch at some point.)

Honestly this film was a tough one to watch, mainly because of how it deals with the reality of death. The film takes place in Barcelona, Spain, and the main character, Uxbal (played by Javier Bardem) is struggling to survive financially and with the separation from his wife, Marambra, he has to provide for his two kids. However, he also has to face the fact that he is dying of cancer and doesn’t have long to live. The movie shows how his cancer diagnosis affects him psychologically, mentally, physically and emotionally. The movie opens with a scene where Uxbal is talking with a young woman while they sleep about the story of his wedding ring and the young woman asks if she can try it on. Then we find Uxbal in the snowy woods and there is a dead owl in the snow. A young man smoking a cigarette comes up to Uxbal and they start talking. The scene ends and Uxbal is back to reality, in the doctor’s office, when he finds out that he has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and doesn’t have many months to live.

This film was quite powerful. It reminded me a lot of Babel, one of Inarritu’s other films. If you haven’t seen Babel, it takes place in four different narratives. It follows the lives of different individuals whose lives are deeply interconnected in some way. In Morocco, an American couple named Richard and Susan are riding on a caravan and two young boys shoot a rifle and accidentally hit Susan, injuring her in the shoulder. While this is going on, Susan and Ricard’s nanny, Amelia, is taking care of their kids, Debbie and Mike, but also doesn’t want to miss her son’s wedding, which is being held in Mexico. Amelia asks Richard if she can go, but he tells her she needs to stay with the kids while he takes care of Susan after her injury. Santiago, a relation of Amelia, takes her and the kids to Mexico anyway, and they go to the wedding and have a great time, but then Santiago decides to drive them back to the States while he is intoxicated, even when people tell him that might not be the safest thing. He refuses to listen, and drives them back across the U.S.-Mexico border. Unfortunately, the border guards stop them and ask for identification, but they don’t have any, and when Santiago tries to reason with them, the guards gets aggressive and Santiago drives off but leaves Amelia, Debbie and Mike alone in the desert to fend for themselves. After spending a scary amount of time surviving in the heat of the desert, they finally get help but then Amelia is taken to U.S. customs and they tell her because she is undocumented she will be deported. Another story in Babel takes place in Japan, where a young woman named Chieko struggles with her adolescence. Chieko is deaf and struggles to get people to empathize with her situation, and her mother passed away and she is dealing with the trauma of loss. She wants to have a boyfriend but doesn’t get the validation she wants from the men she meets, and it causes her a lot of deep suffering. Throughout the film, I saw the different ways in which each character’s suffering was interconnected, which kind of resonated with the Buddhist term dependent origination because dependent origination believes that nothing exists in isolation, and everything is connected.

There is a particularly poignant and disturbing scene in Biutiful. When Uxbal goes into a night club/strip club he sees a few dancers who, instead of having human faces, have breasts for heads (I wasn’t sure if the dancers were actually wearing papier-mache breast heads or if Uxbal was actually hallucinating that there heads were breasts.) Uxbal goes to the club and ends up hanging out with Tito and his friends, and they snort cocaine together. One of the women asks Uxbal what is going on with him, and he tells her he is dying of cancer. At first she ponders this but because she just wants to have a good time she goes back to partying. I think this scene showed me that Uxbal is just trying to make the most of his remaining years of life because he doesn’t have long to live, and even when what he does is harmful (e.g. snorting cocaine) he has lost hope for living since his illness is terminal. I read this chapter in a book called The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace by Daisaku Ikeda called “Facing Illness” and he talks about how illness is a manifestation of the devil king of the sixth heaven because it saps our will to live, or our life force. However, when we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we can regain our life force and use the suffering from illness as an opportunity to deepen our faith and Buddhist practice. We can also use our experiences dealing with illness as a chance to encourage others dealing with illness and other sufferings. And even when people die from illness, we can still chant for the deceased person’s absolute happiness. In Buddhism, while we of course need to take care of our health, we also view illness as one of the four sufferings, which are birth, aging, sickness and death. Even if one is successful or wealthy, no one can escape these sufferings. However, when we chant, we can have the life condition of Buddhahood to transform these sufferings into a chance to develop an even deeper state of life and appreciation for life.

I’m still processing the film but overall it was very deep and Javier Bardem and the other actors gave powerful performances.

Biutiful. 2010. In Spanish with English subtitles. Rated R for disturbing images, language, some sexual content, nudity and drug use.

Woah. Ok. This film. I saw this last night and gosh, it kept me up. It got nominated for quite a few Academy Awards when it came out, and I saw Frances McDormand’s speech when she won for Best Actress for the movie, and I thought, I should probably see this movie. I’m not super familiar with a lot of Frances’ work, to be honest, but the last movie I saw with her was Nomadland, and her acting was absolutely incredible. There’s just something about her facial expressions when she acts that make you reflect deeply about the film. In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, she does the same thing, entrancing you with her incredible acting chops.

The film opens up with “Andante” from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in C (Maria Joao Pires sings the andante) and we see beautiful rolling green hills (even though the film takes place in Ebbing, Missouri, the movie was filmed in North Carolina) and fields of flowers. We also see three torn-up billboards advertising various things. Mildred, played by Frances McDormand, goes into the office of this man named Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones, who played Jeremy Armitage in the horror film Get Out) and has him rent out those three billboards she passes by. Mildred’s daughter, Angela, was raped and murdered, and Mildred is on a mission to find which guy was responsible for raping and murdering her. At first, Red is skeptical about renting the billboards out to Mildred, but she refuses to back down and so he finally rents them out to her. Later, a police officer named Jason Dixon is riding through town when he passes by the billboards, the third one which reads “How come, Chief Willoughby?”, the second one which reads, “And still no arrests” and the first one which gives the main reason why the billboards are being painted in the first place: “raped while dying.”

In the process of seeking vengeance for her daughter’s murderer and rapist, Mildred faces a lot of backlash from the town’s people, and in particular, from the Ebbing Police Department. They think she is too obsessed with this matter, and she tells them they’re more focused on racial profiling than they are on this matter. This movie reminded me a lot of Promising Young Woman. In Promising Young Woman, Cassie puts together a plan for getting revenge on Al, her classmate in med school who raped her best friend and classmate, Nina. However, as Cassie continues her plan she feels self-doubt creep up on her, and feels like no matter what she does to avenge her friend, she is going nowhere and her plan is going nowhere. She meets with Nina’s mom, who tells Cassie that everyone felt like they wanted to do more to help Nina, to not feel like a bystander who just let her get raped and didn’t do anything, there’s nothing much they can do, so they just need to let it go. I felt this was similar to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, because Mildred has the billboards put up and does what she can to speak out against the injustice of Angela’s murder, and meets with the police department to persuade them to give even just a tiny ounce of care about Angela’s murder and finding the guy who raped and killed her. However, there’s a particularly chilling scene where she feels like no matter what she has done, no matter how long those billboards stay up, there’s no way she can get over the grief at having lost her daughter. The scene flashes back to the kitchen and Mildred is arguing with Angela, and before Angela goes out she says that she hopes that someone rapes her and kills her, and Mildred shouts back that she wishes the same. The scene flashes back to the present, and Mildred is standing in the darkened hall of her home, reflecting on that day with guilt, like “Why did I even agree with her that she should get raped and killed? I should have told her to not say that.” There’s another particularly poignant scene (and it was in the trailer at the very beginning. It’s actually the scene that convinced me to see this film because it’s a deeply powerful scene.), and in this scene Mildred is sitting in a field, and a deer comes up and eats peacefully across from her. The deer looks Mildred in the eyes, and Mildred asks the deer, “You’re not trying to make me believe in reincarnation, are you? Because you’re pretty, but you ain’t her.” Mildred wants nothing more than to get Angela back, and not even this rare moment of seeing a beautiful creature can surpass the moments she spent with her daughter.

Overall, this movie gave me a lot to think about, and the acting was really good, and the music was excellent too.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. 2017. Rated R for violence, language throughout, and some sexual references.