BoyActors - Reviews/Ratings by diogenes

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Reviews by diogenes

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350 reviews/ratings - 18 pages (20 reviews/ratings per page)

A Perfect World (1993)

A superb film. The narrative is somewhat similar to "Martin's Day" (1984). Butch (Kevin Costner) comes to be everything a decent father should be to the boy. He respects the boy's autonomy, is never patronising, never lies to him 'for his own good'. There's a wonderful scene where the boy reveals that he has been made to feel inadequate about the size of a certain part of his anatomy. Butch asks the boy to show him and is able to reassure him that there's nothing wrong with him. In conversation with the boy, he emphasises the boy's abilities, what he can do rather than what he can't do. In consequence of all this, a bond of love begins to develop between them. There's a scene early on in the movie where Butch's partner in escape, Terry, seems to try to molest the boy. However, this doesn't quite fall in with modern mythology, because Terry's character has already been signalled as aggressively heterosexual. The message of the film is thus rather more complex than would be that of a similar film made in today's febrile climate. There's another strand in this film's plot involving Eastwood's character and his relationship to Butch that gives added depth and meaning to the narrative. T.J. Lowther is utterly wonderful in his role as Phillip Perry. Overall, a definite 'must-see'.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

The Pledge for Mister Bunny (2013)

I absolutely adore this short film!

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Presence of Mind (1999)

Rather magnificent. Nilo Mur makes a wonderful Miles - and he speaks English very well (I half expected his dialogue to be dubbed, but this is very clearly not the case).

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Salas u malom ritu (1976)

A truly wonderful film about three boys in a German occupied village in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. One of the boys takes revenge on the Germans for having been humiliated and hit by a German officer in front of others. This unleashes a chain of events that will transform the villagers' lives for good. There is a young German soldier, Sep, who seems gentler and kinder than the others, and clearly likes the boys, and the boys intuitively like him alone out of the German soldiers. The film grew from an earlier popular TV series on Yugoslav television.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Salem's Lot (1979)

Actually, I think this is the most genuinely scary vampire movie I've ever seen. I saw it when I was a little kid, and the vampire boy scratching at the window gave me nightmares for ages - still does.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Schatjes! (1984)

I really love it!

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Sibir, Monamur (2011)

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Den Sidste Viking (1997)

Really superb story, with a real depth. A Nordic bleakness pervades this film. Some of the cinematagraphy is very striking. Holger Thaarup puts in a fine performance as Harald. A coming-of-age masterpiece.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Skyggenes dal (2017)

Gorgeous.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Slepoy dozhd (1968)

I love the little dance that the boy with the bucket of paint does! (@11:00-11:40)

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Song of the South (1946)

Disney is good at certain things, and terrible at others. "Song of the South" exhibits Disney at its very best. The blending of live action with animation is done thrillingly well, and the signature song is gloriously memorable. Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) is upset by his parents' temporary separation, particularly as his mother insists on dressing him up as Little Lord Fauntleroy (thus proving without a shadow of a doubt that Boys Need Fathers). Fortunately, Uncle Remus is on hand with his tales of Brer Rabbit, to help Johnny face his problems in a more intelligent way. Personally, I rather liked the Favor brothers, particularly the tall freckled brother, Joe (played by Gene Holland). There is a touch of Huck Finn in the fact that the brothers go around barefoot. True, they like drowning puppies, but then everyone needs a hobby. Ignore the Politically Correct fools who think there's anything wrong with this movie. We all know the kind of people: the kind who, already determined to see this as racist, will stare and stare at it, and then STARE HARDER, until they 'see' the racism they so desperately wish to find. In fact, Uncle Remus is a superb character, a gentle and wise old man, to whom kids will readily relate. And unlike the PC brigade, kids won't think about his colour when they warm to him; they'll just like him for who he is. And why shouldn't they? The idea that a negro in the American South should always be portrayed as miserable is tantamount to saying that people should be defined by their colour. The narrative unfolds on a POST-bellum plantation, and Uncle Remus is a man who was once a slave but is now free, so why the heck shouldn't he be happy? Finally, in a very moving scene at the end of the film, Johnny, who is lying in bed having been seriously injured, reaches out as he recovers consciousness to hold Remus' hand. The scene makes clear that it is precisely his relationship with Remus which has enabled his recovery, and in doing so affirms the value of a sociability between adults and children that pays no regard whatever to racial distinctions. The movie thus constitutes a very powerful statement against racial Segregation, at a time when Segregation was very much a reality in the South. Only a snivilisation as morally corrupt as our own could find this movie objectionable.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Sovsem propashchiy (1973)

Nearly all film versions of Twain's Huckleberry Finn have to excise a portion of the novel to avoid being overlong. This version gives only a passing nod to the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud, and omits the whole of the Evasion Sequence (roughly the last quarter of the novel). This last omission is not as terrible as one might think, since Twain's ending for his novel has divided critics, with many seeing it as unsatisfactory, or at least as on a lower level of inspiration to the preceding narrative. The removal of the novel's ending does, however, make the movie's conclusion a bit of a non-conclusion, with nothing really resolved. But as a 'riff' on the original novel (which every film adaptation is anyway) this is still a gorgeous and unique version, very much worth seeing, and Madyanov makes an enchanting and photogenic Huck (even if he is a little too young and a little too well-fed for Twain's Huck!).

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Spy (2011-2012)

Sharp, witty, fast paced, this is not deep and meaningful; it is a pure bauble of delight, nothing more, nothing less. Jude Wright is fantastic.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Le Temps du loup (2003)

A bleakly realistic masterpiece.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Time Bandits (1981)

I reckon the Napoleon section is overlong and doesn't quite come to life, despite Ian Holm, which is a pity - but after that, things pick up considerably. There is a heartbreaking tragedy in the protagonist being benevolently plucked from Mycenae just when he has found something like a true home and a true father. I rather liked the ending! I like the sense of his being left totally on his own - though I think he's probably ultimately better off anyway. The glimpses of the TV game show that we see at the start are hilarious!

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Today They Took My Son (2016)

As so often happens, I find myself agreeing with Saga! Yes, it's a piece of agitprop, but told in so direct and straightforward a manner as to make it compelling. An excellent and necessary short film.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story (2003)

I just love the whole style of this film, though admittedly it will not be to everyone's taste. Tulse Luper is a collector because he has a passion for taxonomy, for system - he admires people like lexicographers and compilers of encyclopaedias, because they put diverse phenomena in one place under a single system, thus creating unity and order out of chaotic fragments. This fascinates me because ever since my early childhood I have shared the same passion. ('Taxophilia'?)

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Tyler (2014)

I think adults tend to forget the strength of the passions they had when they were young, and therefore tend to dismiss or regard as unimportant the passions and desires of children. This film displays a rare sensitivity to the emotional life of a young boy, from whose point of view the story is told.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

Visit to a Chief's Son (1974)

A charming film about the need for boys to be given freedom in order to mature and gain responsibility, and the way in which, in this regard, western societies might learn something from the way things are handled by supposedly more 'primitive' societies such as that of the Masai. John Philip Hogdon is superb and engaging in the lead role. A criminally underrated classic.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)

An intelligent and original horror movie which sets a new standard for the genre. I should just add to what Saga says below that the Extras, including the feature commentary, are only on the Region A/1 discs, for which a multi-region player will be required for those outside the USA/Canada. The UK release has no Extras.

My Movie Rating:

9 / 10

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