If Beale Street Could Talk – Review

If Beale Street Could Talk – Budget of $6 – 9 million – 1 hour and 57 minutes

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Tish and Fonny, 19 and 22 respectively, have known each other since they were children.  So, their love came naturally.  While Tish’s family loved Fonny, his family hated her.  They didn’t feel like she was good enough for Fonny but she was the girl he deserved.  Since he had not lived up to his potential.  After finding a home for them, a police officer grabs Fonny, puts him into a car, and he is ID’d as a rapist.  Three months later, Tish tells Fonny, through the jailhouse glass, she is pregnant with his baby.  She wants to keep it and he is elated.  Although he always thought this would happen after they got married, it restores his hope for getting out of jail.  While Fonny is keeping his spirits up, Tish, her family, and Fonny’s dad are working together to get money for the investigation.  The victim has fled to Puerto Rico.  Fonny’s alibi was arrested.  And a cop is claiming he saw Fonny running from the scene.  Tish must remain strong for her baby and Fonny.

Based on If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, this movie is intimately shot (FTC Affiliate Disclaimer). With close-ups in slow motion, while hearing Tish’s monologue, you feel like more than a fly on the wall.  You feel like you are in Tish’s mind.  While he was falsely accused, this movie doesn’t make his accuser look evil or racist.  She was a victim of rape who was handed a man and told ‘this is the guy’.  She believed the police.  Some may not agree with the ending but it is honest for its time and even today.  The only true downfall is some of the monologues are hard to hear.  It feels like Tish is talking under water or has a strange echo.  The only reason why this movie isn’t a 4, the viewer will not feel compelled to buy it when it comes out on DVD.  It is worth full price at the theater.  However, you will feel compelled to read the book.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars

Don’t be looking. Keep your eyes there – Joe

You and I are going to go out and get drunk – Frank

I hope that nobody has to look at anyone they love.  Through glass – Trish

Don’t be scared – Fonny

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On the Basis of Sex – Review

On the Basis of Sex – Budget of $20 million – 2 hours and 0 minutes

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of 9 women admitted into Harvard Law School in 1956.  While attending law school, she was the wife to second-year law student Marty Ginsburg and mother to Julie.  She had to fight to be heard and seen in class daily.  And it only got harder when Marty was diagnosed with testicular cancer.  Ruth attended classes for herself and him.  Then she took dictation for his homework assignments and completed her own.   When Marty got a job in New York, she requested to take her classes at Columbia but still obtain a Harvard Degree.  While the same courtesy was awarded to a man, it was not given to Ruth.  After finishing with a Columbia degree, Ruth couldn’t find a firm that would hire her.  So she got a job as a professor.  While she is shaping young minds to change the world, she wishes she could.  After airing her frustrations to Marty, he brings a case.  A man was denied the right to use the caregiver deduction because he is a single man.  If Ruth can make the case that a law discriminated against a man, then she can prove the sex discrimination exists.

This is an honest portrayal of Ruth since her autobiography.  While she was ready to fight, she still hadn’t found her voice.  She had a passion for the law but this was her first time in front of the judges’ panel.  During the proceedings, she starts to give up on herself.  But with a few choice words from her opponent, she found her place.  See her true struggle to become a Supreme Court Justice and be inspired.  And you will get a glimpse of the real Ruth.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars

You are very lucky because you’re very short – Marty

That, I learned from Columbia – Ruth

It’s not a movement if all you do is sit. It’s a support group – Jane

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Replicas – Review

Replicas – Budget of $30 million – 1 hour and 47 minutes

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Bill is working on a biomedicine project for Bionyne.  He is trying to imprint the brain of a dead person into a robot.  The brain maps but the robot’s body is rejecting it.  With his latest failure deep on his mind, Bill gathers the family for a vacation.  His children Sophie, Matt, and Zoe and his wife Mona are happy to be together.  During the drive, it starts to pour down rain.  They crash.  Bill is the only survivor.  He calls his friend/co-worker Ed to take care of their body.  Bill download their minds so they can be mapped but he doesn’t want to do it on a machine.  He wants a clone of each of them.  Ed worked on cloning animals in the past but never a human being.  Bill asks Ed to get the cloning pods but he can only steal 3 from the lab.  Bill has to decide which family member to let go.  In addition, his mind mapping software doesn’t work yet.  Ed warns him that the cloning will be done in 17 days.  He must have the mapping complete by then or his family will age past their current years.  If he can replicate his family, how will he keep the truth from them, their school, his wife’s job, and his boss Jones?

This is the type of movie that will develop a cult following.  Not for the acting or the bad CGI but for the question of “what if”.  If you could save your family by bringing them back to life, would you?  What if you had to choose who would live or die, could you? Could you keep the truth from them? Also, the movie ended with a possibility for a part 2.  While that may not happen on the big screen, it could happen in the future.  If you like weird sci-fi, see this one matinee.  Otherwise, wait for Netflix.

I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars

Oh, all right. That happened – Bill

This is gonna piss me off, isn’t it – Jones

That’s a lot of batteries – Ed

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