1/29/2024 0 Comments Cloudburst movieLang, Rosie O’Donnell, and “Jesus Anne Heche Christ.” It becomes very abrasive, very quickly, and it grinds the film to a halt every time. A lot has been expanded upon in previous reviews along the film’s festival circuit screenings (where it has cleaned up and won tons of awards) about Stella’s potty mouth, but it’s oddly far more off putting and offensive watching Dukakis having to almost chronically remind people she’s, by her own admission “a dyke,” and she’s forced into making hamfisted cultural references to queer icons like K.D. This is the kind of film where Dukakis has to hem, haw, and remind people every ten seconds that she’s gay, which doesn’t let give the characters room to breathe to simply be themselves. Oscar-winning actresses Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker as Stella and Dot, an aging couple who escape from a nursing home in Maine and drive to Nova Scotia. There are some good gags and turns of phrases, but this stuff is way too far over the top both comically and dramatically to have any true emotional resonance or catharsis. It feels like “movie dialogue.” The kinds of words and phrases that people rarely even use and certainly not this many times over the course of the 93 minute feature. Where Fitzgerald undercuts his film is by constantly making everyone emote like they are in a stage play and forcing them to spout dialogue that doesn’t feel natural or even actorly. The road trip element of the film isn’t particularly inspired, but it should have been enough to sustain a simple, sweet story like this should be. They add the realism that the film needs. But I couldnt stop thinking about how delightful the scenes were between Oscar winners Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker, and so I looked at the film again. To Fitzgerald and Fricker’s credit, Dottie never once seems like a wilting and helpless flower or some sort of manic-pixie-old-lady. Thom Fitzgerald (Beefcake, The Hanging Garden) has made a heart-conquering road movie. After suffering a fall, Dot is placed in a care home. It’s easy to see how the obstinate Stella finds peace in Dottie. The two secretly escape and embark on an adventurous and moving journey. Cloudburst is a movie about senior couple, Dot and Stella. They are complementary in the best sort of ways. Both wear the wrinkles, knowing smiles, and doubting eyes of shared experience on their face, and together they make the on-screen relationship work more than the story does. You could just sit the two of them in a room together and not have them say anything and they would be oddly compelling. In a bid to stay together, Stella breaks Dottie out of her potential prison, and absconds with her in a pick-up truck, voyaging on a road trip from Bangor, Maine to Halifax so they can get married and live out the remainder of their days together.Īt any age, Dukakis and Fricker would make a formidable duo or couple. After living together for over thirty years, the foul mouthed and hard nosed lesbian Stella (Dukakis) feels threatened that her sweet, kindhearted, and sight impaired lover Dottie (Fricker) is going to be taken away by Dottie’s oblivious and bigoted daughter and placed in a home.
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