Where I Watched It: iTunes

English Audio Description?: no

I swear, once i start reviewing 2023 movies, it will be very different. I went all in for 2022, and it’s so hard catching up on reviews. i saw this about three weeks ago, and I’m just now getting around to trying to remember a rather artistic film that had no audio description.

I’d love to believe I could do it. i can’t. I chose to watch this after I saw it getting some love in some smaller critic awards, mostly for Brian D’Arcy James, who I adore. I would love nothing more than to hear “Academy Award nominee Brian D’Arcy james”. If you question that, I ask you… what was the most powerful moment of Spotlight (aside from the massive list at the end)? Was it the reporter realizing that one of the Priests that had been moved around lived right down the street, and in a scene we see him running down and staring at the house? In awe. How close this person came to his own family, and the realization that this event that he had been able to distance himself from somewhat was right in his backyard? That was Brian D’Arcy james. The unsung other cast member of Spotlight.

So to watch him as a patriarch in this tale about growing up, time changing, and a family, I thought I’d get a lot of James. I got some, but i could always use more. I remember this gave me Tree of life vibes. it was super creative in the way it told the story, and it also made it so much harder to follow without audio description. There is a built in narrator for the film, but often what she’s saying isn’t helpful for the scene, but more an overview or opinion reflective of the passage of time in a larger scope.

I’m sure The cathedral is a better movie than i would be able to grade, so I’m stamping it with my brand spanking relatively new grade…

Final Grade: Unwatchable