DAMIEN RILEY, world musician and performer

Category: Uncategorized

  • Alien

    Title: Alien
    Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
    MPAA Rating: R
    Year: 1979
    Director: Ridley Scott
    Top Billed Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
    Brief Synopsis: After receiving a distress call from an unknown planet, a spacecraft lands to rescue survivors. A lifeform infects the ship and its crew have a deadly force on board with them.
    My Word to the Wise: This is an example of a perfect movie, in my opinion. It’s crafted the same way one might craft an oil painting or a miniature city with a model railroad. Besides being damn scary, it raises questions about evolution, survival, predators and prey, and the possibility of a human apocalypse. By far, this is the best in the franchise. “Prometheus,” its prequel runs a close second. I’ve seen this movie 5 times and will probably see it another 5. Everytime I see it, there is something new to marvel at. “Prometheus 2” is in the works for 2017.

      

  • Evolution

    Sometimes horror doesn’t need a butcher knife or other killing tools. The suggestion of something horrifying or unseemly is quite enough to qualify it being in the genre. The idea of a disgusting this is the worst you’ll see here. Implanting embryos, injecting, c-sections. They MAY be the worst you’ll see in this film, but that’s up to how good of an imagination you have.

    Evolution (2015)
    Évolution (original title)
    Not Rated | 1h 21min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi | 25 November 2016 (USA)

    The only residents of young Nicholas’ sea-side town are women and boys. When he sees a corpse in the ocean one day, he begins to question his existence and surroundings. Why must he, and all the other boys, be hospitalised?
    Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
    Writers: Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Alante Kavaite | 1 more credit »
    Stars: Max Brebant, Roxane Duran, Julie-Marie Parmentier

    The French are good at making art from taboos. Director Lucile Hadzihalilovic is known for being the writer of “Into the Void.” She shows her chops in this one as ditector and co-writer.She out there and out there far. Even with English subtitles, the story has a creepy arcane feel to it.

    The mother’som bond is a strong one, especially at their youthful ages. It is strange how she doen’t seem to protect him. He is her “responsibility” among the others but her eyes never hold the coventing love a mother’s should. Things are going on and it’s not hard to figure them out. It is a slow burn but I did enjoy the creepiness of this French film. In all, it never lived up to what I hoped for. I give it a 6/10.

  • Marjorie Prime

    Is what you see what you get? Marjorie is in dementia stages of her life and her family allows her a robotic hologram in the shape of her deceased husband, in his younger years. Is this good therapy or just a good babysitter? Moreover, will it bring her the comfort they want it to?

    Marjorie Prime (2017)
    1h 39min | Drama, Mystery, Romance | 19 October 2017 (South Korea)

    A service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones allows a woman to come face-to-face with the younger version of her late husband.
    Director: Michael Almereyda
    Writers: Michael Almereyda (written for the screen by), Jordan Harrison (based on the play by)
    Stars: Stephanie Andujar, Hana Colley, Geena Davis

    The director, Michael Almereyda, went to Harvard. Besides that, he made a film adaptation of Hamlet (2000). It was shot on Super 16mm and featured Ethan Hawke, Bill Murray, Kyle MacLachlan, Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber and Sam Shepard. The adaptation layered a contemporary New York setting on Shakespeare’s text. Almereyda has won several persitigious awards: Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada, National Society of Film Critics Special Citation. Though most his films haven’t been popular hits, he has a respectable knowledge of his craft.

    Geena Davis and Jon Hamm give standout performances. We learn things are one way at the beginning, and believe it and then as the film develops, new realities surface. There are statements here about dementia and memory. Furthermore, there is some about suicide. It’s an excellent film for thinking about these things. Definitely a sci-fi film more than a drama. To understand the message, it helps to see the sci-fi side of it. It’s a slow burn and that may turn off some viewers. I give it a 6/10.

  • The End of the Tour

    David Foster Wallace:

    I just think that to look across the room and to automatically assume that somebody is less aware or that their interior life is somehow less rich and complicated and acutely perceived as mine, makes me not as good a writer.

    David Lipsky:

    Why?

    David Foster Wallace:

    Because it means I’m gonna be performing for some faceless audience instead of trying to have a conversation with a person.


    Title: The End of the Tour
    Genre: Drama
    MPAA Rating: R
    Year: 2015
    Director: James Ponsoldt, known for “The Spectacular Now”
    Top Billed Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Segel
    Brief Synopsis: A famous author, cloistered away teaching at a small college, is interviewed for Rolling Stone along a 7 day book tour.
    My Word to the Wise: I loved this movie. It’s based on true events. David Lipsky, a reporter for Rolling Stone, seeks and is granted an interview with bestselling author David Foster Wallace. The 7 days are spent with Wallace doing his everyday routine and Lipsky staying as his guest, recording all he can about the popular enigmatic author. The movie showcases the words of Wallace, revealing their genius. I want to read everything he wrote after watching this. It moves at a slower pace than some bios or literary focus films, so some will be put off by that. But for those who can set aside the running time to take in this film, you will gain wisdom in life and especially in writing.

    Wallace passed away in 2008 and Lipsky used his extensive tape recordings and notes to create this film in 2015. We are left with a golden piece of film as literature. We see not only the genius of Wallace but the large size of his heart that was largely hidden from public view. I highly recommend this film for the reasons I have stated. Because it may not appeal to all moviegoers due to it’s slow, almost documentary pace, it lost a star with me. Some of the quotes, like the ones in the excerpt t the top of this review, could have been accented better as well, possibly by a change of location. Most of this film takes place in cars and airplanes.

  • Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) – When enemies find sex appeal through hypnotism it’s quite funny

    Woody Allen writes his scripts on an old fashioned typewriter. He thinks in analog patterns in linear ways we don’t choose to use these days. Maybe that’s why this film is so effectively funny to me, it’s a change of pace that works. His romantic tension with Helen Hunt is highly enjoyable and the plot he has written for this film keeps you guessing like the best Columbo mysteries.
    The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

    The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

    “An insurance investigator and an efficency expert who hate each other are both hypnotized by a crooked hypnotist with a jade scorpion into stealing jewels.” -IMDB

    Cast

    Greg Stebner Cop (uncredited)
    Woody Allen CW Briggs
    John Tormey Sam
    John Schuck Mize

    Directed by

    Woody Allen

    Written by

    Woody Allen

    Other Info

    Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Romance
    PG-13
    Fri 24 Aug 2001 UTC
    103min
    IMDB Rating: 6.8

    In this film, a gumshoe insurance inspector gets into a match of wits with femal who’s been hired to “clean things up.” The idea is that she wants Woody’s character out. Helen Hunt plays this role deftly and the only way it can work with their age difference is through hypnotism. No, I’m not exaggerating, this film has a crux of hypnotism that keeps the plot flowing.

    A hypnotist convinces these arch enemies they love each other and it makes for some really great romantic comedy. Even if you don’t like Woody Allen, you’ll be busting up laughing at these hypnotized lovers. The gags in this film are very well executed.

    FINAL THOUGHTS
    I’ve seen this period movie probably 10 times. It has the appeal of a noir detective movie but maintains that subdued humor of the director. For fans of Woody Allen as well as goofy, quirky romantic comedies, I highly recommend it.

  • Mudbound

    We think about slavery as being the time when prejudice was at its worst, and then with the Civil War it ended. Often we forget it continued long after and if you want to be truthful, it still goes on today. I am so pleased to see so many films this year portraying a realistic image of prejudice and how much it is still dividing our country. “Mudbound,” that is incidentally up for Best Picture, is a historical piece that takes place after WWII. It stands as a graphic reminder of the prejudice that remained at that time.

    Mudbound (2017)
    R | 2h 14min | Drama | 17 November 2017 (USA)

    Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.
    Director: Dee Rees
    Writers: Virgil Williams (screenplay by), Dee Rees (screenplay by) | 1 more credit »
    Stars: Garrett Hedlund, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke

    In this film we have 2 stories running parallel. One is the story of a while serviceman flying bombers in Germany. The other is an African-American fighting for the USA as well. They come back home to the farms of their youths. The white has become a drunk and the black has encountered racism which surprises him since his return.

    Old prejudices die hard, especially when the Klan is near. There are touching moments where the blacks start to trust whites and whites start to lift their prejudices. The issue of mixed race comes into it and forms a motive in the film. I don’t know how racists would view this film but to me it was utterly horrifying, as it always is when I see extreme racism on the screen. This one is not for kids. It is a good example of how horrible whites have treated blacks through history, even the ones who have returned from war. The struggle for true equality continues, lest we forget. I gave this film a 9/10.