Critical MeMe

Time spent watching films, even crappy ones, is time well-spent.

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Location: Kansas City, MO, United States
    Post dates are when I watched, parenthetical dates are the year of US release (aka Oscar eligibility).

8/27/2021

The Crimes That Bind (2020)

There's a lot of time-shifting here and it was hard to keep track of where scenes fit in the timeline -- especially early on. While I do think the telling was more effective out-of-order, there should've been some marker to help us keep track -- maybe hair length or even just "present day" & "3 years ago" chyrons.

That said, it's a pretty compelling story. Affluent couple has a screw-up adult son who's estranged from his wife. Their simple live-in maid and her young son are basically part of the family, but the maid winds up handcuffed to a hospital bed. The son's legal troubles basically force his parents to downsize in order to keep him out of jail, while they're also juggling the maid's son as well as her trial. There's just a ton going on with the specifics often deliberately obscured.

With a bit more clarity, this could've been an A.

B

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