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Yesterday I saw the movie “The Favourite” with a friend.

I hated it and she said she liked it, when I gave her a strange look she said a movie has to be heavy, in the sense of being hard to swallow, to be good.

"Shoplifters" is a perfect example why I disagree.

This movie had its funny moments and it had a deep message that wasn’t thrown in your face, you could see it if you dug for it. It also had a warmth I had not felt in a long time, not since seeing “The Werewolf Boy” in fact (I usually try to stop myself from crying, but for that movie, I used 10 tissues for the last 5 minutes alone XD ).

Warning: This review is story-focoused and as such full of spoilers - read at your own risk.

The viewer is introduced to a family of shoplifters who find a girl that’s obviously been beaten at home repeatedly (although she has numerous scars she lies about how she got them). When they try to take her home, screams can be heard, a man hitting a woman and then she screams: “I never wanted her either!”

Any illusions of the girl having a happy original home are crushed.

She is taken in by the family of thieves (and she is firm in her decision to stay with them despite being asked if she wants to return home several times).

As she gradually opens up to them she finds the difference between fake and real love, which her birth mother never gave her.

E.g. When they get her a new dress, the girl asks the woman now acting as her new mother “Will you beat me up afterwards [(after they get her the dress)]?” the woman replies that of course, she will not.

The girl claims her birth mother was good because she bought her clothes; her new mother than convinces her to burn her old clothes and tells her that she wasn’t beaten because she had done something wrong and that it wasn’t her fault. “People who say ‘I love you.’ and then beat you up afterwards don’t really love you, if they really loved you they would do this.” She then rocks the girl wrapped in her arms back and forth.

Likewise, the thieves took in a slightly older boy who doesn’t remember a thing about his birth parents; whenever the man acting as his father asks him to call him “father” he replies he isn’t ready yet.

The older girl in the family works as an erotic dancer but in highly regulated place. (She tells her grandmother she just has to “show a bit of skin” to be paid a lot.)

She is always behind glass and performs movements that border on erotic (e.g. suggestive pelvic movements, though she doesn’t really touch herself), but she isn’t actually required to take off her clothes to bare skin level (though it depends on the customer’s request).

She likes one of her regular customers and when she asks him why he comes to see her the answer is to see her face (he likes to see her face and isn’t really focused on the rest of her body), she invites him to a private room and nothing indecent happens, he just lies with his head in her lap and she tells him about her family. After she discovers he has injuries on his knuckles from hitting himself, she holds him in hug despite her timer going off (signaling his time with her is up). There is nothing erotic in it just human closeness, she holds him so he can cry freely.

One day the family goes to the seaside and dad questions the boy if he “likes boobs” the boy’s reply is a hesitant yes and the next question is if “he ever wakes up with a hard-on”, another hesitant yes. His dad explains to him that every man has such reactions.

It’s a positive and funny exchange and shows that while the children’s lessons may not be conventional they are useful and deal with real life.

The little girl likes helping the family steal food or other small items that they can either use or sell.

However, one day her new big brother gets caught by the shop security and breaks his leg in a desperate attempt to flee.

Now it all comes crashing down. The police are on their trail and stop them before they can relocate.

All of them are questioned and it turns out that they aren’t related to each other by blood.

They are a makeshift family of misfits and after watching them throughout the movie the viewer is inclined to believe their version of events more than what the police want people to believe.

The man and woman were accused of killing her husband in a crime of passion (according to the police, but the man claims it was self-defense).

The woman says she alone buried the grandmother to save the others and police even suspect murder, but in reality, the old woman died of old age and they all buried her under the favela-like house because they could not afford more acceptable options.

The older girl is convinced by the police that grandmother was after the money the girl’s parents paid every once in a while and didn’t really care about her (despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary previously seen by the viewer).

The little girl is taken back to her birth mother and it is implied she resumes the abuse she had to go through before the family of thieves found her.

The woman wonders how the little girl is doing when the female police officer interrogates her by using psychological torture by telling her that only a woman that has given birth can be a mother (it is implied the woman is infertile).

Apparently, the pair also took the boy form a car when he was small and raised him as their own possibly to due to infertility.

The boy is told by the woman when he and the man visit her in prison how they found him and that he can seek his “real parents” if he wants to.

He also spends some time with the man before returning to the people who adopted him. He asks if the family planned on leaving him behind and the man replies they did (though he doesn’t mean it) and the boy replies he wanted to get caught.

The coldness of both is artificial; however, as the man runs after the bus taking the boy away calling his name and the boy calls him “father” for the first time when the man is out of sight.

At the end of the movie, one of the conversations, the man and the woman had flashed in my mind when they disused they can’t give the children what they need and that they aren’t “good enough” for such wonderful children.

That conversation is firmly negated the little girl staying home alone just as she was in the beginning, looking past the tall sliding fence, likely hoping the family would come to get her.

The movie was truly touching and made a point that not all things are in providing for a child financially, that in some cases blood is as good as water without any real affection and bonds that are chosen are far stronger.

I'd recommed it to anyone though I'm on the fence about children - they might rasie uncomfortable questions to their parent about some of the scenes.

Note: I saw the movie with Slovene subtitles and any quotations I used for conversations had to be translated into English via the subtitles.
Post edited November 14, 2018 by Wolfy777
Are you sure you are not looking for this thread ?
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Telika: Are you sure you are not looking for this thread ?
I had no idea it existed, thank you. XD

Though I'm not sure if the focous is on reviews so much as it seems to be on short recommendations.

However, if such reviews are "polluting" the genral forum, I'll make sure to post any future ones in that thread. ;)
a review shouldnt spoil the movie for those who havent watched it yet, but id prob pass on it regardless due to my aversion of dramas. glad you enjoyed it tho
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Telika: Are you sure you are not looking for this thread ?
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Wolfy777: I had no idea it existed, thank you. XD

Though I'm not sure if the focous is on reviews so much as it seems to be on short recommendations.

However, if such reviews are "polluting" the genral forum, I'll make sure to post any future ones in that thread. ;)
If you browse the thread, you see that the content varies a lot. One line notifications, lengthy reviews, discussions, lists, etc. Anything goes.

My reproach is that, given that it's a gaming forum, 98% of mentionned movies are the latest marvel star trek teenage slasher dc blockbuster movie of the furious. There was a small bunch of cinephiles, a few years ago, but most of them left. It's not exactly a place where you come chat about your latest Carné or Scola.

But anyway it's just a statistical gripe. The thread is very open and freeform.
Post edited November 12, 2018 by Telika
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Wolfy777: I had no idea it existed, thank you. XD

Though I'm not sure if the focous is on reviews so much as it seems to be on short recommendations.

However, if such reviews are "polluting" the genral forum, I'll make sure to post any future ones in that thread. ;)
avatar
Telika: If you browse the thread, you see that the content varies a lot. One line notifications, lengthy reviews, discussions, lists, etc. Anything goes.

My reproach is that, given that it's a gaming forum, 98% of mentionned movies are the latest marvel star trek teenage slasher dc blockbuster movie of the furious. There was a small bunch of cinephiles, a few years ago, but most of them left. It's not exactly a place where you come chat about your latest Carné or Scola.

But anyway it's just a statistical gripe. The thread is very open and freeform.
I'll keep that in mind.
Thank you for providing more details. :)
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mintee: a review shouldnt spoil the movie for those who havent watched it yet, but id prob pass on it regardless due to my aversion of dramas. glad you enjoyed it tho
Thank you, I'll add a spoiler warning.

While I did focous on the story I wanted to use the progression and certain events to backup the points I made.
Post edited November 12, 2018 by Wolfy777
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mintee:
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Wolfy777: Thank you, I'll add a spoiler warning.
Good thinking and took the words right out of my mouth as SPOILERS are really SPOILERS and some of us don't wish to see them.
Post edited November 12, 2018 by Tauto
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Wolfy777: I'll keep that in mind.
Thank you for providing more details. :)

Thank you, I'll add a spoiler warning.

While I did focous on the story I wanted to use the progression and certain events to backup the points I made.
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Tauto: Good thinking and took the words right out of my mouth as SPOILERS are really SPOILERS and some of us don't wish to see them.
Point taken and most dully noted for future attempts. XD

Though I tend to make most (movie) reviews story driven.

Unlike theatre, movies remove the notion that an actor is telling the story.
As a barrier is made invisible; I sometimes, if not often, tend to forget that the people onscreen are actors not characters (I'll likely just see the sotry and the role and check the actor only in an extreme case - like the unfortunate rabbit in "The Favourite").
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Tauto: Good thinking and took the words right out of my mouth as SPOILERS are really SPOILERS and some of us don't wish to see them.
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Wolfy777: Though I tend to make most (movie) reviews story driven.
Even this is a spoiler that I left out but as long as you warn then,no problems as when I see spoiler alert then I don't visit:)
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Tauto: Good thinking and took the words right out of my mouth as SPOILERS are really SPOILERS and some of us don't wish to see them.
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Wolfy777: Point taken and most dully noted for future attempts. XD

Though I tend to make most (movie) reviews story driven.

Unlike theatre, movies remove the notion that an actor is telling the story.
As a barrier is made invisible; I sometimes, if not often, tend to forget that the people onscreen are actors not characters (I'll likely just see the sotry and the role and check the actor only in an extreme case - like the unfortunate rabbit in "The Favourite").
Though it doesn't concern me personally, here's a tip:
If you use "spoiler" tags, those of us who have installed Barefoot Essentials will not see the content until they expand the spoiler block.

It doesn't do anything if the user have not installed said add-on (though they may wonder why the word "spoiler" is in square brackets in the beginning and at the end), so it doesn't harm anything.

Example:
[spoiler]
This is hidden for users of Barefoot Essentials unless they chose to see it.
[/spoiler]
Post edited November 12, 2018 by Maighstir
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Wolfy777: Point taken and most dully noted for future attempts. XD

Though I tend to make most (movie) reviews story driven.

Unlike theatre, movies remove the notion that an actor is telling the story.
As a barrier is made invisible; I sometimes, if not often, tend to forget that the people onscreen are actors not characters (I'll likely just see the sotry and the role and check the actor only in an extreme case - like the unfortunate rabbit in "The Favourite").
avatar
Maighstir: Though it doesn't concern me personally, here's a tip:
If you use "spoiler" tags, those of us who have installed Barefoot Essentials will not see the content until they expand the spoiler block.

It doesn't do anything if the user have not installed said add-on (though they may wonder why the word "spoiler" is in square brackets in the beginning and at the end), so it doesn't harm anything.

Example:
[spoiler]
This is hidden for users of Barefoot Essentials unless they chose to see it.
[/spoiler]
Interesting, thank you.

I might use it in a text where the division of spoilers vs. non-spoilers is more clear cut.