One of the best shot movies of recent memory, the stills alone are worth the price of admission.
Emilia Pérez, 2024 - ★
This is the musical version of Crash. It's a French guy using any number of stereotypes and tropes in the hopes of making some kind of enlightened movie. But every single time they try to address something serious it breaks out into some of the worst musical numbers I've ever heard. The fact that Karla Sofía Gascón had really bad tweets is actually pretty fitting for this movie.
Find something that treats trans-parenthood with some respect or find a film on cartel violence done by a Mexican director with Mexican actors.
Zoe Saldaña is good in it, but even she has to undermine her part with absolutely ridiculous musical numbers.
The New Rasputins - The Atlantic
Other civilizations have experienced moments like this one. As their empire began to decline in the 16th century, the Venetians began turning to magic and looking for fast ways to get rich. Mysticism and occultism spread rapidly in the dying days of the Russian empire. Peasant sects promoted exotic beliefs and practices, including anti-materialism, self-flagellation, and self-castration. Aristocrats in Moscow and St. Petersburg turned to theosophy, a mishmash of world religions whose Russian-born inventor, Helena Blavatsky, brought her Hindu-Buddhist-Christian-Neoplatonic creed to the United States. The same feverish, emotional atmosphere that produced these movements eventually propelled Rasputin, a peasant holy man who claimed that he had magical healing powers, into the imperial palace. After convincing Empress Alexandra that he could cure her son’s hemophilia, he eventually became a political adviser to the czar.
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency by President Biden | MPR News
“Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials (including the former U.S. Attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers, and human rights organizations strongly support granting Mr. Peltier clemency, citing his advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to and leadership in the Native American community, and the substantial length of time he has already spent in prison.”
Carry-On, 2024 - ★★½
Watched on Monday December 30, 2024.