The following is part of a weekly compilation of movie reviews from The Buzz Track staff. These movies were watched in the previous week, and the reviews were originally posted on Letterboxd.
The Last Full Measure (2020)
DIRECTOR: Todd Robinson.
WRITERS: Todd Robinson.
MPAA RATING: R – Viewer discretion is advised.
GENRES: Drama, War.
LENGTH: 1h 56min.
LANGUAGE: English.
WHERE TO RENT: JustWatch or Prime Video.
★★★★☆ | WATCHED: February 14, 2021.
Here is another war centric movie filled with an all-star cast of actors portraying veteran soldiers. The structure of the story is all too familiar of a design. It is from a landlocked point of view from a homeland perspective. In this case, a person who works at the United States Department of Defense is the centric figurehead who learns about those who are courageous enough to be dispatched to other countries during wartime to fight for American patriotism. Its structure borrows a bit from the narrative design of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950). Upon my first viewing of The Last Full Measure, it is a good movie to watch. It hits all the emotional triggers for national patriotism and entertainment enjoyment.
Console Wars (2020)
DIRECTOR: Blake J. Harris, Jonah Tulis.
WRITERS: Jeff Goodby, George Harrison, Tom Kalinske.
MPAA RATING: TV-14
GENRES: Documentary.
LENGTH: 1h 32min.
LANGUAGE: English.
WHERE TO RENT: JustWatch or CBS All Access.
★★★★☆ | WATCHED: February 14, 2021.
This documentary is a fun walk down memory lane. It resides strictly in the realm of the early competition wars with the home video game consoles. In my own family, we played Nintendo and Atari throughout those years of the 1980s and early 90s. The documentary focuses on the competition between Nintendo and Sega during those early years. It was a decent viewing and a nostalgic walk down memory lane.
Waves (2019)
DIRECTOR: Trey Edward Shults.
WRITERS: Trey Edward Shults.
MPAA RATING: R
GENRES: Drama, Romance, Sport.
LENGTH: 2h 15min.
LANGUAGE: English.
WHERE TO RENT: JustWatch or Prime Video.
★★★★☆ | WATCHED: February 20, 2021.
This movie is a story told in two parts. The first half is about selfishness, self-loathing, and hate. It contains the clichés of an after-school special about a teen who abuses prescription drugs. The second half is about unconditional love, forgiveness, and the bumpy road through the grieving process. The constant change of the aspect ratio would usually annoy the hell out of me. But in this movie, I can see how it compartmentalizes the different emotional states in life perfectly for this story. I am surprised by my positive reaction to viewing this movie. The use of an Alabama Shakes song at the end strikes a perfect chord of feelings.
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