FlashbHACK -- review originally published here.

[7]

Wake up in the mornin’, ‘cause my name’s Ree Dolly.
Got a meth-cookin’ dad and a burned-out mommy.
Brush my teeth, feed the kids, then I roam the city.
When you’re a squirrel-skinnin’ hillbilly, life’s real shitty.

I’m talkin’ bondsman’s gonna foreclose-close,
Neighbors look down their nose-nose,
Where’s dad? Nobody knows, knows.
Teardrop’s a little bit shady
But the rest of the fam’ly evades me
When they’re not tryin’ to outright slay
Me…..…

FlashbHACK -- review originally published here.

[7]

A patient and well-crafted little film, Ida offers modest, old fashioned pleasures. These are in danger of being overlooked due to the film's confusing reception; it appears to be on track to win the 2015 Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, which is pretty silly. But Pawlikowski's film was a sleeper hit at a time when the graying audience for foreign films has largely given up, coaxed away by the less taxing "foreignness"…

[6]

I miss the old Kiyoshi. The can't-be-sold Kiyoshi. Back in the fold Kiyoshi. That was the bold Kiyoshi. Remember Cure Kiyoshi? That wasn't your Kiyoshi? 'Cause that was my Kiyoshi. Damn, that was fly, Kiyoshi! You came with Kairo, Kiyoshi. That shit was fire, Kiyoshi! Even Bright Future Kiyoshi, that ill repute Kiyoshi. I dug it all, Kiyoshi. So why'd you stall, Kiyoshi? And then that Journey to the Shore? You got some gall, Kiyoshi!

I miss the real…

[4]

If you happen to follow my Twitter feed, you'll know that I've already gotten a bit hot and bothered about this film. In retrospect, it was probably a good deal of energy wasted, or at least misdirected. I tend to forget that useless dreck like The Imitation Game is pimped on every streetcorner around Oscar season by an industry that considers movies as product, not art. Most of the time, that product is slathered in Adam Sandler, and it…