Given its subject matter, Lovelace could be forgiven for being shocking or harrowing itself...if it were. It could be forgiven for being a lot of things--contentious, outrageous, depressing, infuriating. But given its source material, here's the one thing I couldn't forgive it for being: gutless.
The past twelve months have been filled with great times at the movies for me. For the first time since I started making such lists, I had choices to make not only at the top but also at the bottom.
I happened to see Enough Said the day after screening Inside Llewyn Davis. Both films featured caustic--some might say cruel--women verbally abusing the men they once partnered.
Alas, no. No to all of it. No to it being a holiday film, a love film, a romantic film, or a feel good film. No, above all to it being truthful about the world we live in. No to the masses being smarter than the critics. No to some of the best actors of our generation elevating mediocre material. I still can't bring myself to hate this movie, but I do feel sympathy (and yes, if I'm honest, condescension) towards those who embrace it.
While I never quite felt like I was watching a snuff film, I could also never shake the suspicion that I might soon be.
Evaluating Disney films in a DVD era has become a complicated calculus.
It's Better to Jump is one of those films that sounds better in a summary than it ends up being.
It's hard to combine reality television with church.
That "B" grade looks stingy in retrospect, especially given some of the films I had rated above it: Kill Bill: Vol. 1; Thirteen; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Mystic River.
It's not surprising, then, to find the film is about antisemitism. What was surprising to me was how fresh it managed to be even while dealing with a subject that is as old as Western civilization.
