I checked out 3 streaming movies and couldn’t make it past 30 minutes on any of them. Then, I landed on THE GOLDFINCH, which only played one week in Richmond. So, I watched it last nite:
A 13-year-old (Oakes Fegley) loses his mother in a bombing of the museum they were visiting. His only piece of hope is the titular painting that he takes from the scene. This young version of the protagonist struggles to cope with two new lives: a privileged one with a rich family (headed by Nicole Kidman) and a more scrappy existence on the West Coast with his unscrupulous dad (Luke Wilson). The narrative alternates with him as an adult (Ansel Elgort), still working thru his grief and trying to have a productive life. While the story is interesting and the performances are good, the somber pacing makes the 2:20 running time a bit of a trial. It doesn’t help that there’s almost no emotional payoff via the writing or direction. (Available on streaming platforms including Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Google Play) Movie website link
(2.5 / 5)
Here’s why I couldn’t make it thru these 3:
SELAH AND THE SPADES
There are 5 factions of students at a fancy boarding school with the focus on the titular woman and her group. I was hoping for a new take of high school, but it seemed like a drama without much promise. The dialogue wasn’t special and the characters weren’t especially memorable. Amazon Prime Video
THE HALF OF IT
This takes the familiar Cyrano deBergerac tale to high school. An unpopular Asian teen earns money penning papers for other students. One guy approaches her to write letters to the girl he’s attracted to, but turns out she is also attracted to her. I was hoping the revised version would feature some fun adolescent characters or clever youth dialogue. Wrong. It seemed to plod along without much interesting happening. Netflix link
SEARCH FOR JIMMY ONE-EYE
This was billed as “a lost gem from the 1990s independent film boom” with a cast including Steve Buscemi, Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro and Sam Rockwell. It definitely had a low-budget indie feel and really bore down on an assemblage of quirky characters, but there wasn’t much compelling or comic to keep my interest. Amazon Prime Video