Skip to main content

Arbitrage - Quick Review

When you watch a movie like this one, you find yourself looking for those little things that separate it from all those that have resembled it in the past.  Arbitrage succeeds on two levels.  The script is nearly flawless and the acting, with one exception, is not overdone. It's people acting the way you would imagine they would under these situations.  The standout in the film however is not the star, Richard Gere, but Nate Parker who plays Jimmy.  Parker's ability to convey loyalty with self interest, street smarts with raw intelligence and toughness with sensitivity is uncanny.  He is an odd choice to represent the moral compass in the movie. Tim Roth and Gere share a scene that is explosive, despite it's subtlety, but the scenes with Parker steal the show.

Unfortunately, the movie fails with too much filler (which at just over 100 minutes is a little odd) and a very weak ending. Not in that it leaves us with questions, but leaves us with the feeling that a final scene, a better one, was left on the cutting room floor.  The actual filming is done brilliantly with an incredible eye on the scale of the issues at hand, represented by the actual size of the massive offices where hundreds of millions of dollars are shifted about.  A fine movie, with a terrific script, that just misses the mark of being great and falls into the "good" category.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo...

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her...

If You Listen To One Speech - Lana Wachowski

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/lana-wachowski-opens-up-about-difficult-past-and-attempted-suicide-20121024 Today I saw a link to a video for a speech by Lana Wachowski.  The last name rung a bell, but I could't put my finger on it. Lana, used to be Larry, one of the writer, director, producers of the Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta and the upcoming Cloud Atlas.  Lana is transgendered and has "come out" as a woman.  She was being honored by the Human Rights Campaign. I didn't know what to expect when this broad woman with crazy hair and a raspy voice began to speak.  She began with the usual pleasantries and told of her hair dresser. She then tells of her desire to be a quiet person and how hard the success of the Matrix movies made this.  The first ten minutes is telling of how she's not quite ready to be this spokesperson.  Then she speaks about the new movie Cloud Atlas and reveals the heart of the movie and this speech. She states,"The resp...