The Lost City of Z

Driven by an irrepressible desire to advance and succeed, willing to assiduously acclimatize himself to arduous extremities, without uttering a single dismissive word of protest, the bold Percival Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) sets out to map disputed South American realms, and learns of an ancient legend after earnestly departing down river.

The pursuit of that legend leads him to boisterously challenge the racial preconceptions of Britain's Royal Geographical Society after he achieves fame for his rigour and accolades for his gall.

Controversies cloud his subsequent expedition however as a colleague of a higher social rank (Angus Macfadyen as James Murray) signs up and cannot handle the hardships of the exploratory life.

After Fawcett judiciously grants him reprieve, he still slanders his reputation upon returning home.

Yet his resolve remains unencumbered (even during World War I) and his humble determination wins him the loyalty of his fellow explorers as well as that of local aboriginal tribes.

The long periods of time he spends away from his family leave them aggrieved nevertheless.

Atonements must be paid for cold sacrifices made.

James Gray's The Lost City of Z presents an adventurous life lived in nimble haunting miniature.

I've often written that biographical films such as Z proceed too quickly and only offer a scant realization of the subject of inquiry's remarkably inspiring accomplishments.

Yet Z has found a compelling balance between the burst and the burnish which cleverly captivates without seeming superficial or insufficient.

It isn't a poppy light conglomeration of exceptional details but rather a profound accumulation of brave characteristics which classically define an intrepid life.

Born to quest, and ruggedly equipped with the constitution to do so, Fawcett stoically sought the supposedly sensational in order to encyclopedically romance.

I imagine, as the internet mutates, hundreds of years from now cyberspatial explorers will pursue similar objectives by searching online for that which previous civilizations considered noteworthy.

The macroscopic transforms ultramicro.

The evolution of adventuring.

Piquant periodic paradigms.

Solid career move Robert Pattinson.

Ghostbusters

I don't see anything wrong with casting women as the new ghostbusters.

That's the fun thing about remakes, you switch up the story and the genders and the races or ethnicities to ensure that the reimagination comments on contemporary issues, rather than just presenting a facsimile of the original, whose origins themselves are likely hotly debated, thereby keeping the narrative fresh, while jump starting sociocultural synergies.

There's something to be said for respecting traditions as well, but as the centuries pass these liberal and conservative vice versa visualizations forge a compelling multiplicity that encourages vibrant critical controversies.

Liked the film.

The script lacks at least one feature that ironically made the original so realistic, the fact that the ghostbusters took huge risks to start their business, and then proceeded to take steps to in/flexibly run it, affectively pulling you into their audacious exterminating antics with hectic supernatural commercial conviviality, the new one focusing less on entrepreneurial aspects and more on interpersonal relationships, a different approach, but it still never seemed like their business could fail, or make any money either, although it did seem like friendships could be re/built through the productive art of constructive team building.

The interpersonal relationships of the four hilarious heroines do draw you in with kinetic displacements and undulating sorority, they're written quite well and engagingly invigorate the active material with knowledgable grit and practical pugnacity, the best of the best living up to the challenge, impressive, conducive, calico, they had an incredibly tough act to follow and at times even take the lead, regenerative calisthenic conversations, tally-ho, which remain loyal to the franchise's republican origins.

Grrr.

There's contempt for different levels of academic rigidity within, obviously the supernatural is real, the principal villain values the dedicated impeccable labours of hard working honest Americans, when African American ghostbuster Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) jumps off a stage no one catches her, the ghostbusters hire their secretary solely because he's good looking, the ivory trade is unforgivably referred to nonchalantly, nuclear energy is highly valued as an available technology ripe for non-regulated experimentation, ethnic slurs are callously dished out, and none of the brilliant perspicacious female ghostbusters has been able to find a partner.

Classic form, alternative Ghostbusters.

What else, yes, they slowly encounter different ghosties as the narrative unreels and during the climax end up battling those very same ghosties.

Different ghosts people, different ghosts, a cataclysmic apocalyptic (Hollywood's big on the Apocalypse this Summer) fissure has opened up in New York City unleashing thousands of ghosts and the ghostbusters end up fighting the same ones they fought earlier in the film.

Laziness, especially considering the remarkable creative opportunity the writers and special effects peeps had there.

Nevertheless, the film's worth checking out.

If you like strong comedy executively executed by leading American comics, I don't see why you wouldn't like this film.

It's not the gender that matters, but how well the individuals play their respective roles, and how well those roles are resoundingly written.

Kirsten Wiig (Erin Gilbert), Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon (Jillian Holtzmann) perform remarkably well.

And deserve total respect.

True Story

The truth pounds and pontificates, asserting its virtue like harvested sunlit ascension, but politics and the law prevaricate in turn, truth remaining their raison d'être, placated as a matter of posture, taste, illusion.

Fascination.

The truth becomes more variable as time passes, and you continue to read, and it slowly becomes apparent that there's at least a critical correspondence between the truth and what actually happened, depending on the subjects involved, left wing truth, right wing truth, and their relationships to profit and manipulation.

If the right's too powerful there's no worker truth, if the left's too powerful there's no management truth, the bourgeois bullseye.

Rupert Goold's True Story truthfully examines truth from truthful perspectives, a journalist confusing factual writing with fictive, a murderer seeking to innocently sway.

A librarian involved in the action.

It perspires as it illustrates the truthful, manipulative, and profitable dynamics of legalistic sanities by having the journalist (Jonah Hill as Michael Finkel) meet with the suspect (James Franco as Christian Longo) to battle cloaked blistered scripts.

Jill Barker (Felicity Jones) has the best speech.

Something's missing from the middle of the film, at first Hill and Franco's interactions provocatively move things along, but without anything to disrupt their discussions for a time, an image, an armadillo, bark, the film sags, until the disruptions return.

Also intermingling credibility, reputation, and popularity, True Story still sombrely reflects on the forbidden, stark carnal peculiarities, vivacious choral runes.

Great companion film for While We're Young, insofar as both films adopt different attitudes regarding the expression of truth, one celebrating charisma, the other delegating consequences.

Concerns.

Easy A

The rumour patrol, derisively and intrusively guided by, well, everyone, in some little way, for abstract, practical, or theoretical purposes, always and forever. Will Gluck's Easy A examines the strengths and weaknesses of a malevolent high school rumour machine, full of invective and austerity, delineations and miscommunications, as it attempts to ruin the reputation of Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone). But Olive's smarter than your average bear, and she uses her classmate's curiosity and stereotypical subservience to elevate the social status of the downtrodden, while quietly accepting her scarlet letter. The film excels at presenting sensational subject matter in a subdued yet occasionally theatrical manner designed for young adult audiences yet containing enough elderly content to appeal to the middle-aged, and others, as well (this form subtly heralded by the coy opening credits). Olive's parents (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci) steal the show, but then Thomas Haden Church steals portions of their booty from them, while Stone herself makes off with a queen's ransom. An engaging examination of the potential horrors of high school distilled and distributed by an appealing 'iconoclast,' Easy A's case study suggests that the solution to overcoming ruthless gossip is to find true love, unless he or she is secretly unfaithful, which, I guess, is kind of saccharine. Good movie though.