Author Archives: jjcwn

Movie Review: Little Fish

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I can only hope, after seeing “Little Fish”, that is about romance during a world wide Pandemic, that Pandemic films are not the new trend in the movie industry. Living through over a year of Covid-19 has been enough Pandemic at least for the next 100 years.

The Pandemic in this movie – something called, Neuroinflammatory Affliction or NIA, attacks the brain and over time erases the entire memory of the victim. Some kind of a cure is found, but in this case its a horrendous surgical procedure involving a long needle applied to the roof of someone’s mouth. All of this leads to massive worldwide panic both to avoid this horrible disease and then to somehow receive the cure. This is a Pandemic scenario just about as bad as it can get. It is rather unusual that the screenwriter even tried combine a concept like this with a romance story.

The main characters are Emma and Jude, played by Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell. Emma is a Veterinarian and there are no less than three scenes of her counting down the days where she would have to euthanize another dog – making anyone shy away from wanting to be an animal doctor. Emma and Jude are friends with another married couple who are affected by NIA, where the woman’s husband entirely loses his memory, making for some very emotional and well acted scenes. The romance between Emma and Jude is well played but rather depressing throughout the 2 hours as they desperately try to survive a horrendous Pandemic. I did not like the too-many scenes of chain smoking by the two main characters – even during a movie involving a health Pandemic. How stupid is this, that in this day in age, cigarrette companies are still making money in the movie industry?

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Little Fish is a surprisingly high 91%, my rating is only 75% with a marginal recommendation.

Showtime Series Review: Your Honor

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The new 10 part Showtime series “Your Honor”, starring Brian Cranston is as close to a Shakespearian tragedy as I have seen in a long time. The story starts simply, “what would a parent do to save their child if they made a mistake”. In this case a judge Michael Desiato, played expertly by Brian Cranston has a son named Adam who has Asthma. Adam makes a tragic driving error by bending down to pick up his inhaler and hits a teenage boy on a motorcycle, who himself was driving erratically. Unfortunately this teenage boy has a father who is both a murderer and master criminal, making going to the police and confessing no longer an option. From the very beginning, this basic conflict make for a highly believable and unique story that I have not seen before, with extremely well drawn out twists and turns all the way to the last episode.

This series is brilliant because of the way all of the lies Judge Desiato tells everybody he knows, trying desperately to hide the fact that his son was involved in the accident that killed a teenage boy. The lies mutate and grow ever more complex and impossible to conceal as the story unfolds. Desiato’s friends notice little discrepancies that don’t seem right, other small lies slip out, other things are found out that at first seem to be perfectly hidden. With a lie this big, over time it becomes impossible to keep it a secret. The unwinding of so many lies during this story, is the best part of this series.

As he was with the great series “Breaking Bad” – arguably the greatest television series of all time, Your Honor shows Cranston at his best with great dialogue, story and most importantly, his great acting as judge Desiato. All of the remaining cast members are also great in their roles with an ending that is both a surprise and ultimately tragic.

The IMDB ratings are an outstanding 81%, which is an accurate number, along with a ridiculous 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that has only one very inaccurate critical review. Regardless, I highly recommend this series which is now available on Amazon Prime.

Movie Review: Land

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In the case of the new movie “Land” both directed and starring Robin Wright, the screenwriter started with a woman in her 50’s named Edee played by Wright – traveling by herself to live in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely nothing but a few cans of food in a broken down and abandoned log cabin with no plumbing. From the start of the movie, the question is, “why would anyone want to do something like this?”. Slowly during the two hours, we find out that a horrendous tragedy has happened to Edee. A tragedy that would challenge even the strongest among us to their very limit. Survival instincts take over that at times can be out of your control, when the worst of life happens. The brain tries to find a way to numb the pain, and try to move on – some how, some way. Many cannot move on and either go insane or take their own lives within a situation like this one. Land is definitely not a happy film, but no story like this one could ever be told in a happy way.

This film is about human survival, intense levels of grief and most importantly, human empathy – something that is very rare in this world. During her attempt to live in the middle of nowhere, Edee befriends Miguel, played very well by Demián Bichir, who not only saves her life but teaches her how to survive in the middle of the mountains of Wyoming. Their friendship grows with his sporadic visits, even bringing his dog who becomes quickly attached to Edee. The Cinematography of the huge mountains of Wyoming was very well done, as was the first time directing debut of Robin Wright. The ending of this movie is both powerful and emotional and at the end Edee finally finishes her story, about why she is such a state of extreme emotional grief. The story of Land is a simple and very powerful one.

Once again the critics are wrong, with the Rotten Tomatoes only at 69%. This film is a solid 85% and has my full recommendation.