lilianaoana

Louise Violet, comme la couleur... Telling account of how general public education had to be state mandated and enforced and free in order to finally work, probably over a few decades though, and this was France, the seat of art, culture and philosophy so it happened much sooner in history and yet it was still not easy at all to convince simple country folk of its usefulness and also to trust outsiders sent as teachers and worst of all female teachers, unmarried, educated, independent and free spirited, worse still with a hidden past. In that sense this particular story also takes a feminist turn, which I enjoyed, but it's clearly written through a modern lens. Or maybe it's a sort of love letter to the Louise Violets throughout history, pioneers of the future and trailblazers for their sex, and I am sure there were a lot of them that history forgot.

It was a very slow movie or it felt very slow and although I cannot put my finger on the why I am sure there was something. Sets and actors felt genuine and enjoyable. Favourite pet peeve of mine, very aggravating in this story too - people starting out as very stubborn and set in their ways, even terribly prejudiced experience a sudden conversion and change of heart due to either triggering events or wise words from someone or the main character proving their worth and empathizing with the locals/integrating within the community. While the last point does matter and can achieve a lot, I have never in my life encountered these shifts in personality or beliefs, not so suddenly and decidedly. People are really very much set in their ways. I guess watching these farmers and people of the land be so aggressive and hurtful and then change their minds like that made this trope even more obvious.

So despite this beautiful, genuine world that they created and showed to us here it was not impactful or sweeping enough for me to overlook this persistent grievance of mine. But I did appreciate Louise's resoluteness regarding her independence and bodily autonomy and the fact that she actually put it in words. Women were really viewed as transactional bodies back then and it is painfully made clear here by both men and women.

People seem to be merciless to this one as opposed to the original but it grew on me. It was pretty weak in the beginning I'll grant you. Of course it cannot compare to Freaky Friday for those of us who were teens or young adults when we watched that one, it spoke to us, we were the target generation with the mom issues and we related to the fashions and the talk and everything. Frankly Lily is the worst of Gen Z and Harper is just clueless and self-absorbed. I still think Lily is horrible and I personally cannot forgive her but only cause I'm much older and I believe in accountability and I am taking that part way too seriously. But ALSO, who uproots their child like that for a man? I mean I do get the hype about Manny Jacinto now, I really do, but... Yes I might be taking this way to seriously. When the craziness started I let that go and enjoyed it actually. I mean Lindsey and Jamie Lee are great in this plus the old boyfriend scenes.

Well, the key's in the name, there's no Tucker car today. Oh wait... Was wondering whether this was a true story or inspired by a true story but it got so crazy I thought no way, plus whoever heard of a Tucker, eh? Only to find out at the very end that goddamn it is a true story actually. With less attractive people of course. Rabid capitalism at its best. Always delaying progress and the betterment of the standard of living for the common man.

I knew pretty early on that I wouldn't like this movie much, Americans do not give us lovable losers in movies, there's something about this type of character that I find off-putting. In fact I stopped watching it at some point and it took me weeks to get back to it. Tucker is running on dreams, with an ever inflated ego. He put his family, friends, employees and partners at risks. He gets lucky though, quite often, even at the end he somehow beats the odds. He lost a lot but they didn't defeat him for good at least. Jeff Bridges seems born to play Tucker with his wide smile and beaming face and his unrelenting and almost psychotic optimism. That's some kind of charisma right there. Wouldn't want to be his wife or child but I gotta hand it to this guy Tucker, he sure got people excited. And he embraced publicity with such bravado.

So I came back to it and got sucked in again with the machinations and the SEC and the trial. I love me a court drama, especially a period court drama. There's a silver lining here for Tucker on a personal level, maybe not so much for the people who would be forever deprived of his revolutionary inventions.

Joan Allen's ever so lovely but you cannot possibly tell me so many children came out of that fragile body. Well, you know, the actors are so much more attractive than the real people they play.