One of the perks of being in SAGAFTRA, the actors union, is I get to see all the movies and TV shows nominated for the SAG Awards. In the old days that meant union members just showed their SAG membership cards at participating theaters and they got in for free. But today we tend to look at these films digitally. Because the studios seem to mail out DVDs late and because we get only a short time to look at them, I end up watching them on my desktop or tablet.
This year there are so many films and TV shows nominated for the Sag Awards it’s hard to fit them in so I can vote on them. And because most of the films are over two hours long, watching anything takes up quite a bit of my day. Between working on my next Hetty Carson mystery, auditioning for voice overs (I have a portable recording studio in my home office) and self-taping acting auditions on my phone or on my tablet, I don’t have much time to watch all these films.
I know that’s not the most earth shaking problem to have, but it can be when you’re unemployed as I am. In the middle of this I’m searching for a part-time day job I can do at home before my money runs out. Though with a bit of luck, I hope to land a voice over or acting job soon.
But back to the films. Of the ones I’ve watched so far I loved Belfast and The House of Gucci. The acting, the cinematography and the screenplays were great.
And not that I’m any sort of film critic, but I found Licorice Pizza disjointed. Yes, it’s being heralded as the best picture of the year. Yet I felt nothing flowed from one episode to another. Plus a woman of twenty-five hanging out with a kid of fifteen? I didn’t see that as believable, and I thought it was weird.
Another film, The Power of the Dog, was too slow and too obtuse for me. But what I liked about it was the scenery. It reminded me of New Mexico, though it was more desolate, which fit the film’s theme. Desolate people in a desolate setting.
Last night I watched The Lost Daughter. It did keep me watching because I hoped to make more sense of it at the end. I didn’t. Was the point to show that women can be just as awful parents as men? Everything was meant to be symbolic, but I found the connection between the scenes and the flashbacks confusing. Though I did like the contrast between the setting of the idyllic beach setting and the desperation of the characters.
The movie that most disappointed me was the noir Midnight Alley film. It was too long and too predictable. It’s now trendy to show characters in all their grubbiness and with the carnival people they excelled in that aspect.
Well, on to the next film. Or maybe I need to stop procrastinating and get back to writing the next Hetty Carson mystery.
Thanks for reading,
Vanessa
Author:
The Trouble With Murder, D.X. Varos, Ltd, 2022
Hidden Agenda, Forget Mellemgaard APS (in Danish) 2021
The Cubist Caper, Forget Mellemgaard APS (in Danish) 2022
A Palette for Murder, A Lana Davis Mystery, Five Star Publishing, a part of Gale/Cengage Learning 2015
A Blue Moon, CCHB 2013
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