Better than The Post but not as good as Spotlight, Maria Schrader’s She Said tells one of the most important stories of this century, one that helped ignite MeToo. This movement dismantled 30+ years of silence around the subject of sexual assault in the movie/television industry. I wanted to like this movie more than I did. Unfortunately, because there is so much recency with this story and its fallout, it limited opportunities to learn something new. That’s not this film’s fault, but it was something that I carried with me as the story unfolded. Films about newspapers breaking stories may have lost their place in today’s environment. There is so much information that anyone interested in learning about a particular case can research online before a story is developed into film, television, etc. Unfortunately, social media has not helped the newspaper or television reporting industry. However, films such as The Post, Spotlight, or She Said can help us separate fact from fiction when we are inundated with information overload.
Category Archives: Jennifer Ehle
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)
A much anticipated same-sex attraction/sexual attraction conversion therapy movie had been initially projected to earn multiple Oscar nominations. Unfortunately, the Lucas Hedges/Nicole Kidman/Joel Edgerton/Russell Crowe Boy Erased failed to live up to the hype. I had read the book earlier and hoped that the movie could capture the aspects of the novel I liked and take it to the next level. And despite decent Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores (81% and 72%), that didn’t happen for me.
But here we have this much less marketed movie in The Miseducation of Cameron Post with a much less recognized cast and a first-time director in Desiree Akhavan (Boy Erased was directed by Joel Edgerton, a pretty darn good actor turned director). Many didn’t see This lesser-known movie, earning less than $1 million domestically (compared to $7 million for Boy Erased, which could have been more successful). Still, it succeeded because of both its softness and its quietness. The movies were similar, and I’d like to know what Edgerton knew about Akhavan’s movie and vice versa. While Boy Erased underwhelmed (primarily due to my lofty expectations of it going in), something about it still made the movie more memorable than The Miseducation of Cameron Post. So, with that said, Boy Erased was better. Still, The Miseducation of Cameron Post was a more enjoyable movie that leaves you feeling more hopeful for those struggling with (and those not struggling with) same-sex attraction.
The River King (2005)
Though I had never heard of 2004’s The River King, the DVD case piqued my interest when I saw it in the under $5 bin at Walmart one day. I purchased the movie, but it sat on my shelf for a couple of years before I picked it up again when looking for something to watch. The case once again got me interested. The movie hooked me within its first five minutes. While this was not a great movie, it was worth watching. The opening scene’s setting, a dead body discovered buried underneath a transparent sheet of ice in a narrow winding river in the middle of a desolated forest in the dead of winter, was perfectly shot by director Nick Willing.