Among "name" critics, I turn to Leonard Maltin for old movie history
Speaking of Leonard Maltin and Little Rascals....you got this book? It's a must have! (click on image):
Posted on 06/22/2003 3:24:47 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
SWEET SIXTEEN / ***1/2 (R)
June 13, 2003
BY ROGER EBERT
"Sweet Sixteen" is set in Scotland and acted in a local accent so tricky it needs to be subtitled. Yet it could take place in any American city, in this time of heartless cuts in social services and the abandonment of the poor. I saw the movie at about the same time our lawmakers eliminated the pitiful $400 per child tax credit, while transferring billions from the working class to the richest 1 percent. Such shameless greed makes me angry, and a movie like "Sweet Sixteen" provides a social context for my feelings, showing a decent kid with no job prospects and no opportunities, in a world where only crime offers a paying occupation.
Yes, you say, but this movie is set in Scotland, not America. True, and the only lesson I can learn from that is that in both countries too many young people correctly understand that society has essentially written them off.
The director of "Sweet Sixteen," Ken Loach, is political to the soles of his shoes, and his films are often about the difficulties of finding dignity as a working person. His "Bread and Roses" (2000) starred the future Oscar winner Adrien Brody as a union activist in Los Angeles, working to organize a group of non-union office cleaners and service employees. In "Sweet Sixteen," there are no jobs, thus no wages.
The movie's hero is a 15-year-old named Liam (Martin Compston) who has already been enlisted into crime by his grandfather and his mother's boyfriend. We see the three men during a visit to his mother in prison, where Liam is to smuggle drugs to her with a kiss. He refuses: "You took the rap once for that bastard." But the mother is the emotional and physical captive of her boyfriend, and goes along with his rules and brutality.
The boy is beaten by the two older men, as punishment, and his precious telescope is smashed. He runs away, finds refuge with his 17-year-old sister Chantelle (Annmarie Fulton), and begins to dream of supporting his mother when she is released from prison. He finds a house trailer on sale for 6,000 pounds, and begins raising money to buy it.
Liam and his best friend, Pinball (William Ruane), have up until now raised money by selling stolen cigarettes, but now he moves up a step, stealing a drug stash from the grandfather and the boyfriend and selling it himself. Eventually he comes to the attention of a local crimelord, who offers him employment--but with conditions, he finds out too late, that are merciless.
Some will recall Loach's great film "Kes" (1969), about a poor English boy who finds joy in training a pet kestrel--a season of self-realization, before a lifetime as a miner down in the pits. "Sweet Sixteen" has a similar character; Liam is sweet, means well, does the best he can given the values he has been raised with. He never quite understands how completely he is a captive of a system that has no role for him.
Yes, he could break out somehow--but we can see that so much more easily than he can. His ambition is more narrow. He dreams of establishing a home where he can live with his mother, his sister and his sister's child. But the boyfriend can't permit that; it would underline his own powerlessness. And the mother can't make the break with the man she has learned to be submissive to.
The movie's performances have a simplicity and accuracy that is always convincing. Compston, who plays Liam, is a local 17-year-old discovered in auditions at his school. He has never acted before, but is effortlessly natural. Michelle Coulter, who plays his mother, is a drug rehab counselor who also has never acted before, and Annmarie Fulton, who plays the sister Chantelle, has studied acting but never appeared in a film.
By using these inexperienced actors (as he often does in his films), Loach gets a spontaneous freshness; scenes feel new because the actors have never done anything like them, and there are no barriers of style and technique between us and the characters. At the end of "Sweet Sixteen," we see no hope in the story, but there is hope in the film itself, because to look at the conditions of Liam's life is to ask why, in a rich country, his choices must be so limited. The first crime in his criminal career was the one committed against him by his society. He just followed the example.
Note: The flywheels at the MPAA still follow their unvarying policy of awarding the PG-13 to vulgarity and empty-headed violence ("2 Fast 2 Furious"), while punishing with the R any film like this, which might actually have a useful message for younger viewers.
Yes, esp. when you consider that he's almost certainly in that upper most 1%.
He still gives Blue Velvet zero stars.
His partner, Roper is no better. I thumber through a book of his to get a feel for what kind of reviews he'd give (to understand "two thumbs up" now). He hates the old Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts (in part because he considers them racist but also because he feels that they are outdated). I may be mistaken but I even seem to recall that he said he didn't like black & white movies.
Among "name" critics, I turn to Leonard Maltin for old movie history (including shorts). I read more "fan" based reviews (in Psychotronic Video, Schock Cinema, Video Watchdog, and at Ain't It Cool News website). Some of them can also get political in their editorial sections but generally not so with the reviews (I gave up on Video Watchdog of late though). Most of the others I listed deal with "Genre film" or cult movies.
Maybe Roger considers himself the leftwing counterpart to movie critic/talk show host Michael Medved. I don't know if Michael Medved uses his reviews for such offtopic political rants though. And Medved's radio show permits those who wish to challenge his assertions a forum to do so.
Okay, seen enough, skippin' this movie.
Ebert is an addict:
• It wasn't too many years ago that he was a crawl-across-the-floor-to-the-toilet drunk. I do not know whether he is recovering now; but
• Obviously his food addiction is still raging.
Addicts' minds are clouded by their obsessions.
He wishes he were "overblown"...he'd be in hog heaven.
What's the deal with movie critics? Is this some sort of closed society, where you have to be a 'wide receiver' to get this sort of gig?
Without exception, the SoKal televised reviewers are flamers...
It's ironic that he would have written this book, since half the movies that are out at any one time Ebert says deserve 3 1/2 or 4 stars. He lies to the public to curry favor with the actors and their studios.
You're paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to park your leftist fat-ass in uncrowded, air-conditioned movie theaters. There are no heads to block your view. Hell, you don't even have to pay to get in. You have one of the highest paying, easiest "jobs" in the world.
"In a world where only crime offers a paying occupation"?
I don't think you're committing any crimes, but you're sure as hell doing okay financially. Why don't you work on lifting up the very people who your party is insistent on keeping down?
Oh -- wait a minute, giving people money solves all problems. Social programs are effective. Wealth redistribution is the answer. How silly of me. <\sarcasm>
What is he talking about? Are the poor being taxed and their money given to the wealthy? Surely he's not suggesting that you take something from someone by not gving them a handout, or that you give something to someone by letting them keep what they have?
In real life, as opposed to on Ebert's fantasy world of shadows on the silver screen, when an excuse is made for why a normally functioning human being was unable distinguish between right and wrong, it is almost always, quite simply, a lie.
Among "name" critics, I turn to Leonard Maltin for old movie history
Speaking of Leonard Maltin and Little Rascals....you got this book? It's a must have! (click on image):
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.