TFS – Weeks 7-10

Well it’s been a while since I last updated about my film class and a lot of time has passed. The only way for me to catch up in telling people about what we saw would be to post about them all together. Fortunately, I don’t have much to say about the films since most of them I was “meh” about. So starting where I left off, we come to,
Gunner Palace This is a fairly unbiased documentary about what is currently going on in Iraq. One guy follows around several U.S. troops and catches more or less every aspect of their daily lives. As a movie it was somewhat convoluted in its format and storytelling, but the realism it captured was powerful. It provides at least an understanding of what role we’re playing there. Now available in select theaters.
Overall Rating: 3.5 Gunner-Filled Palaces

Dear Frankie This was the week we took our midterm, which was very easy by the way, and afterwards we were shown this movie without discussion. It’s a Scottish foreign film and in it a single mother lies through letters to her deaf son that his dad is on a ship sailing the world. When the ship he’s supposed to be on suddenly docks in Scotland, she has to find someone to play the role of the father for a day to keep up the lie. This was really a great movie despite the odd synopsis. Also playing in select theaters.
Overall Rating: 4.5 Fatherless Ships

Dot the I Another foreign film, this time from England where a Spanish lady falls in love with a stranger on the eve of her wedding night. The result is a love triangle between these two and the fiancée that leads to tragedy in the end. At least that’s what they’d like you to think and soon another story reveals itself. I felt that this movie was could, but it really could have been better and the surprises had no impact after awhile. Still an enjoyable movie, also playing in select theaters.
Overall Rating: 3 Bewildered I dots

Sahara Last week’s feature film that is based on a Clive Cussler novel of the same name. I’m told it’s a long book and the plot of the movie shifts from searching for a civil war battleship in Africa to contaminated water in Mali. This movie really felt like it was trying to be both James Bond and Indiana Jones at the same time, which was already done before in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Everything was very cliché and not funny enough to be enjoyable. I made fun of the movie the entire time; that is until I grew bored of even that. My advice: stay out of the Sahara!
Overall Rating: 1.5 Uncrossable Deserts

I'll update later about this past week's movie. Also Dust to Glory and Kontroll have opened up in select theaters so try and catch them if you can!