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amandapan2
Reviews
The Last Alaskans (2015)
Respectfully made and beautifully shot
There are a lot of bad reality TV shows about wacky Alaskans out there, but this show is not one. I am really digging The Last Alaskans on Animal Planet right now. Not sure why it's on Animal Planet- the show is definitely about the people, not the animals, though it being Alaska, there are animals everywhere. It's about the 7-8 cabin-owners who are the last remaining inhabitants permitted in the Artic National Refuge, an area the size of South Carolina. They are quiet, hardy, salt-of-the-earth people who LIKE living in almost complete isolation. The distances are truly staggering- captions like "meanwhile, 360 miles to the north..." are common on-screen transitions between one family and the next.) It's kind of amazing that these very introverted folks even allowed camera crews to follow them around at all. I would love to see the behind-the-scenes on how this all got filmed. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, especially the panning areal shots (must be drones?) of the wilderness below. Watch this show if you can- I highly recommend!
Boyhood (2014)
It made me think about life and time, and being human
I'm very happy that Boyhood was so deservedly rewarded last night at the Golden Globes. I'm not saying it was a perfect film; it did have it's flaws; mainly I was not hugely impressed by Ellar Coltrane's acting (I'd call it a mediocre performance) and the I felt that story line started to wane during "Mason's" teenage years, HOWEVER, it was still an extraordinary film and watching it was an amazing, provoking, and new experience. I've truly never seen anything like this, and it moved me. Greatly. Watching Mason actually growing up from a boy to a young man through 12 years, in a pretty unremarkable, typical American setting, and watching Olivia and Mason Sr. learn responsibility and parenting at the same time, made me think about life. REAL life, not life according to Hollywood. Writer/director Richard Linkletter's aim was to make a film that depicts what he thinks real life is all about: "winging it" (to quote Ethan Hawke's character in a tender father-son moment towards the end of the film). Or to put it in another way, Linkletter's impression of real life is that we're all just here together doing our best to make things work, in the time that we have. I really felt that so strongly at the end of the film. I also felt very acutely how time passes inevitably and how time is one thing that we humans have no power over.
I loved this movie. It deserved the Best Drama and Best Director Golden Globes that were awarded to it last night. I hope this is the first of many successful award nights to come, the Oscars included.