21 | February | 2021 | Movie Reviews 101

Director: Daniel Kokotajlo

Writer: Daniel Kokotajlo (Screenplay)

Starring: Siobhan Finneran, Robert Emms, Brownyn James, Steve Evets, Sacha Parkinson, Jessica Baglow

Plot: A faithful Jehovah’s Witness is forced to shun her own sister because of a religious transgression. As the separation draws out, she starts to question the meaning of God’s love.

Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Slow & Surprising

Story: Apostasy starts as we meet a family of Jehovah witnesses, Ivanna (Finneran), Luisa (Parkinson) and Alex (Wright), they are devoted in their following, until one day Luisa reveals she is pregnant with a man that doesn’t follow the same beliefs.

Luisa is forced out of the community, which leaves Alex torn between wanting to support her sister, while hitting the most important part of her part of the group, while starting a relationship with Steven (Emms) the news member of the communion.

Thoughts on Apostasy

Characters – Alex is an 18-year-old Jehovah Witness, she was raised in the religion and has becomes a loyal follower within it, she passes the world of her God around, only now she will face her own toughest test, when her sister is kicked out of the religion and her own health starts to get worse. Ivanna is the mother of the two girls, she is left with no option to push her eldest daughter away after her own action, to remain within the religion she has devoted her life too. Luisa is the eldest daughter that is forced out of the religion after becoming pregnant with a no believer, she struggles with being away from her family. Steven is the newest member of the group, he wants to bring a change to the way everything is conducted only he still needs to keep the strictness that has been bought through the generations.

Performances – We do have a group of wonderful performances from the cast, with Siobhan Finneran, Sacha Parkinson and Molly Wright, each showing the difficult struggles they are going through.

Story – The story here follows a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses whose life is thrown into turmoil after the eldest daughter becomes pregnant and is banished from the religion leading the family needing to make difficult decisions with their own futures. The story shows us just how devoted one person could be, showing how they could almost become blind with their devotion they will only make mistakes with seeing how important other things can be in life. It doesn’t show Jehovah’s Witnesses in a negative light, showing how they act like they are better than other people with how they believe God is for them. One of the biggest problems in the film, shows us just how important life moments are pushed aside for a belief in a God figure that people might well believe in, they just ignore the life matters.

Settings – The film uses the settings to show us how they are involved in an everyday life even with their religious life.

Scene of the Movie – The chance to return meeting.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Everyday problems are just pushed aside.

Final Thoughts – This is a well-acted drama that does show us how a religion can take control over people’s lives, splitting families apart when left to choose between them or God.

Overall: Wonderful Performances

We are under U because Das Boot is about a U-Boat.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Writer: Wolfgang Petersen (Screenplay) Lothar G Buchheim (Novel)

Starring: Jurgen Prochnow, Herbert Gronemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge

Plot: The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth and sheer terror.

Tagline – Hitler sent out 40,000 men aboard German U-Boats during World War 2. Less than 10,000 returned.

Runtime: 2 Horus 29 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Brilliant

Story: Das Boot starts as a war correspondent Lt Werner (Gronemeyer) joins the crew of Captain-Lt Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock’s (Prochnow) U-Boat during World War II, looking to create a story about the success of the U-Boat side of the war, the crew are a rowdy group, if they are not drinking on shore leave, they are pull pranks on the newest crew members.

Once out at sea, the crew must face the reality of the dangers of war, destroyers roaming the open water, attacks to the ship and showing just how deadly being in a submarine through the war would have been.

Thoughts on Das Boot

Final Thoughts – When is comes to wartime movies, we know we need to get to know a crew, unit and soldier before going forward with the story, here we meet the crew, we have the typical line up, where we have the stricter, jokey and the nervous ones, each gets there moment to show why they are making certain decision during the journey. We get the high level of peril when the attacks happen, showing us just how claustrophobic the environment would be for the crew, how much they ricked to get the upper hand, while showing us the important information that three quarters of U-Boat crew never returned home from the war. This is on the epic scale because we do spend time learning more about the crew, while they might come off reckless, when it comes to dealing with the operation to survive they will show the loyalty to win the battles they find themselves in.

Overall: Epic War Movie.