The Invisible Woman
"Nelly (Felicity Jones), a happily married mother and schoolteacher, is haunted by her past. Her memories, provoked by remorse and guilt, take us back in time to follow the story of her relationship with Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes), with whom she discovered an exciting but fragile complicity. Dickens - famous, controlling and emotionally isolated within his success — falls for Nelly, who comes from a family of actors. The theatre is a vital arena for Dickens - a brilliant amateur actor — a man more emotionally coherent on the page or on stage, than in life. As Nelly becomes the focus of Dickens' passion and his muse, for both of them secrecy is the price, and for Nelly a life of "invisibility." I liked the period piece and development of how people created affairs. No hotel rooms trusted friends homes. The yearning and longing created intense romantic desire. This is something our generation has lost. Romance. The picture was long, moved slowly and developed over time. It was interesting how celebrity culture was no different from it is today. Instead of a film star, it is about a writer.
Prisoner's of War
Israel. This 12 hour TV series from Israel, the original from which Homeland was created, is one of the finest TV series I have seen. It is when 3 POW's are in Lebanon and return after 17 years and how it is for them coming home. The show was intense and personal and real. Their adjustment is fraught with isolation and confusion and disorientation. And then with the final ending, you see it repeated all over again. It will always be and it will never end.
Saving Mr. Banks, 2013
I have seen Saving Mr. Banks. I think it is truly the finest film of the season. It is a movie that I had no desire to see and for some reason I did. I have now seen it three times. It is the best film of the Christmas season. Wonderful, wonderful dialogue, well-developed characters with marvelous cameo roles, a beautiful nuanced and deeply enriching film experience. A wonderful relatable story and it is all true. Emma Thompson should win the Academy. I have sent everyone there and everyone has found it marvelous. You will too.
August: Osage County
"This movie tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Tracy Letts The play was the winner of five Tony Awards in 2008, including Best Play. The film version of August: Osage County is directed by John Wells and features an all-star cast, including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Sam Shepard." I hated this film and was bored out of my mind. It was over-acted, exaggerated, stylized in a ridiculous way, the characters tedious and boring and Streep needs to retire. I am so tired of her — the face twitches and over-the-top drama. She acts the same in every movie. I am ready to boycott her films. The movie, which was more like a play, imitated O'Neil's, Long Day Journey Into The Night, but without the beauty and poetry and magnificent writing and real emotional depth to sorrow and loss. This film was just mean. I did not connect to any of the characters.
Pride and Prejudice, 1995
BBC. Starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. The best version ever made of this book.
Muriel's Wedding, 2000
The movie that propelled Toni Colette to stardom. This independent, Australian unforgettable film has become a classic with memorable lines, wonderful story, and terrific character development. I have seen this movie many times and it never ceases to entertain, amuse, and delight.
Bad Day at Black Rock, 1954
Spencer Tracy. Robert Ryan. A one-armed man shows up in an unfriendly small town looking for answers, to the Japanese man who saved his life during the War. He wanted to give this man's metal to his father. He discovers this man has been murdered by the local townspeople who all share a collective guilt in his murder and try to kill Tracy to hush him up. It is a superb finely tuned film with fine cameo appearances.
Dallas Buyers Club
"Matthew McConaughey stars in Dallas Buyers Club as real-life Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof, whose free-wheeling life was overturned in 1985 when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. These were the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and the US was divided over how to combat the virus. Ron, now shunned and ostracized by many of his old friends, and bereft of government-approved effective medicines, decided to take matters in his own hands, tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. Bypassing the establishment, the entrepreneurial Woodroof joined forces with an unlikely band of renegades and outcasts—who he once would have shunned—and established a hugely successful "buyers club." Their shared struggle for dignity and acceptance is a uniquely American story of the trans formative power of resilience. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (McConaughey) and Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto)." A movie film with superb acting by McConaughey.
12 Years A Slave - 2x Won Best Picture of The Year! I called it!
Second time that I have seen it. Probably the finest film of this year. Powerful. Heart wrenching Real. But tough to take as the realism blends into the horror of the institution of slavery. T—he cinematography was beautiful. The speed and quietness and ability to pause to allow us, the viewer, to reflect — how he used distance, as when he was in prison screaming for help and the camera pulled away and you saw how isolated his cell was and how no one could possibly hear him, with DC in the far background — it was as if the camera was in back-in-time too. I feel that it should be seen by every Senior in High School. It captures the horror of this Institution and the agriculture society and relationships and the devastation and destruction of the black family and the human being. My parents and I once did a trip to Charleston and Cary and I toured Nashville, and we saw these great plantations — quite an eye opener!
Gloria
"Gloria [ aulina García) is a "woman of a certain age" but still feels young. Though lonely, she makes the best of her situation and fills her nights seeking love at social dance clubs for single adults. Her fragile happiness changes the day she meets Rodolfo (Sergio Hernandez . Their intense passion, to which Gloria gives her all, leaves her vacillating between hope and despair—until she uncovers a new strength and realizes that, in her golden years, she can shine brighter than ever. The film is exclusively and radically told from a single point of view—Gloria's—and Garcia's tour De force performance captured the Silver Bear Best Actress Award at this year's Berlin Film Festival. Chile's Official Selection for Best Foreign Language Film consideration at the 86th Academy Awards. Directed and co-written by Sebastián Lelio. (Fully subtitled)" A wonderful sensitive portrait of a lonely middle-aged decent woman. I have experienced all that she has, from wanting to knock oneself out because the pain of loneliness is go great and how she slowly returns to life without losing her dignity or hope. Terrific film.
The Great Beauty
"Journalist Jep Gambardella [the dazzling Toni Servillo, Il divo and Gomorrah) has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafes to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty. An Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. A Golden Globe winner for Best Animated Foreign Language Film." This torturous exhausting, tedious boring, awful film, I have decided is because The Emperor wears no clothes. How this film became nominated is beyond me. It was simply awful. However, watching the clothes and fashion were spectacular. Loved all of that.
Like Father, Like Son
Japanese.
"Would you choose your natural son, or the son you believed was yours after spending six years together? Kore-eda Hirokazu, the globally acclaimed director of “Nobody Knows,” “Still Walking,” and “I Wish” returns to the big screen with another family — a family thrown into torment after a phone call from the hospital where the son was born…
Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their six-year-old son, Keita, is not ‘their’ son: the hospital gave them the wrong baby.
Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between ‘nature’ and ‘nurture.’ Seeing Midori’s devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a ‘father’ all these years? This is the moving story of a man who finally faces himself when he encounters an unexpected wall for the first time in his life." Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda. Masaharu Fukuyama. This exquisite and touching sensitive film shows the great depth of emotion that lies underneath the Japanese persona. I liked how when vulnerable and emotional issues needed to be addressed, you respected the person by showing them your back. It became less harsh and allowed them not to feel shame. It was an extraordinary piece of film work — not a film for everyone because of its pace but it felt real and heartbreaking.
Live Action Shorts (Films)
"Don't miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Live Action Short! Program includes: "Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?" (Finland), in which Mother Sini, late for a wedding, is going crazy since nobody else in her family seems to be able to do anything right; "Helium" (Denmark), in which a hospital's eccentric janitor helps a young dying boy regain the joy and happiness of life; "Just Before Losing Everything" (France), in which Miriam hurries to pick up her children to take them to her work place, and explains to her boss that she has to leave the region in a rush; "That Wasn’t Me" (Spain), the story of Paula and Kaney, an African child and a Spanish woman, who could have nothing in common, but will get to join their lives forever through a life-giving shot; and "The Voorman Problem" (UK), in which Doctor Williams is called in to examine the enigmatic Mr. Voorman, a prisoner who believes he is a god." My favorite.
Roots, 1976
Watching this over thirty years later, it felt tame and held in — unlike 12 Years A Slave which was raw and intense.
There was a cleanness to it - it did not possess the brutality that we have come to now know. But what stunned me was how I remembered every scene so well — and anticipated everything that was going to happen! And, I had only seen it once. Has it stood up to time — after another plagiarized the truth behind original thought, it has not but it was still absorbing and entertaining and pivotal to our history.
"Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor and the visionary behind the desktop video revolution, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer ("Girl with a Pearl Earring") manage to paint so photo-realistically—150 years before the invention of photography? The epic research project Jenison embarks on to test his theory is as extraordinary as what he discovers. Spanning eight years, Jenison's adventure takes him to Delft, Holland, where Vermeer painted his masterpieces, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artist David Hockney, and even to Buckingham Palace to see a Vermeer masterpiece in the collection of the Queen. Also featuring Martin Mull, Professor Philip Steadman and Dr. Colin Blakemore. Directed by Teller, and co-produced by Farley Ziegler and Teller's partner, illusionist, comic and narrator Penn Jillette." I found the movie sluggish and small - a fascinating conclusion to a mystery that has eluded the art world for 400 years, finally solved! It could have been far more expansive, going into the world of Vermeer and why his art is elusive and genius, but it stayed on the inventor and what he accomplished.
The Last of the UnJust
Claude Lanzmann. "Nineteen seventy-five In Rome, Claude Lanzmann filmed a series of interviews with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last President of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, the only "Elder of the Jews" not to have been killed during the war. A rabbi in Vienna, following the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, Murmelstein fought bitterly with Adolf Eichmann, week after week for seven years, managing to help around 121,000 Jews leave the country, and preventing the liquidation of the ghetto.
Twenty-twelve. Claude Lanzmann, at 87 - without masking anything of the passage of time on men, but showing the incredible permanence of the locations involved - exhumes these interviews shot in Rome, returning to Theresienstadt, the town "given to the Jews by Hitler," a so-called model ghetto, but a ghetto of deceit chosen by Adolf Eichmann to dupe the world. We discover the extraordinary personality of Benjamin Murmelstein: a man blessed with a dazzling intelligence and a true courage, which, along with an unrivaled memory, makes him a wonderfully wry, sardonic and authentic storyteller. Through these three periods, from Nisko in Poland to Theresienstadt, and from Vienna to Rome, the film provides an unprecedented insight into the genesis of the Final Solution. It reveals the true face of Eichmann, and exposes without artifice the savage contradictions of the Jewish Councils." The movie was way too long, 3.5 hours. It needed a massive editing job and it was released thirty years too late. The more uninformed Holocaust student would have more of a purpose to see it than me.
The Monuments Men
"Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of World War II to rescue the world's artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men find themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1,000 years of culture, they risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements. Based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter, the film stars director and co-writer George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett." I found the movie a C+. It was boring at parts, a copy cat of other films, the suspense felt false and contrived, the humor fell flat, there was no chemistry between the players except for Damon and Clooney. Blanchett and the Jewish soldier stole the film. Goodman was utterly miscast. It could have been an interesting film but it fell utterly flat.
In Bloom
"Early nineties, in Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast (Abkhazia) and vigilante justice that plague society. But for Eka and Natia, inseparable fourteen-year-old friends, life just unfolds: in the street, at school, with friends or elder sisters who are already dealing with men’s dominance, early marriage and disillusioned love. For these two girls in bloom, life just goes on…." I loved this gem of a film. The transitions were clumsy, the photography simple, but the intimacy of the story became a universal sad truth, a travail of life in the former Soviet block. Lives are without opportunity and for young girls, their futures are dark and bleak, limited in scope and narrow in perspective. I felt profoundly sad.
And The Oscar Goes To …
"A look at the history of the Academy Awards features clips from past ceremonies and Oscar nominated and winning productions, plus interviews with stars, filmmakers and behind-the-camera talents." I felt this was extremely well done and interesting and entertaining.
Her block-The Black & White, 2013
Alan Mandell. Doug Budin. "This remarkable documentary details political cartoonist Herbert Block's 55 years at the Washington Post, a legacy marked by 3 Pulitzer Prizes, The coveted Medal of Freedom and his crucial role in exposing the Watergate scandal." This was a visionary, a magnificent artist and brilliant in his wit and ability to hone in on details that even the characters involved had not thought of. It was terrific.
The Wind Rises
"In acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, Jiro (voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt)—inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni—dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world's most innovative and accomplished airplane designers. The film chronicles much of his life, depicting key historical events, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan's plunge into war. Jiro meets and falls in love with Naoko (Emily Blunt), and grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo (John Krasinski). Writer/director Miyazaki pays tribute to engineer Jiro Horikoshi and author Tatsuo Hori in this epic tale of love, perseverance, and the challenges of living and making choices in a turbulent world. The English-language cast also includes Elijah Wood, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Grey, William H. Macy and Werner Herzog. Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature.: This simply marvelous film, that choked me up inside, is not for young children. It is way too sophisticated — in fact it could have been a wonderful film with real actors and not animation. There were only two things that bothered me. One. All the Japanese characters had round eyes. I know what that is about but still.
Second. We are talking about building weapon planes to destroy us during WW2. These are the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor. At the end of the story, one of the characters says to Jiro, none of your planes returned from the war. Well yes, that is because they were used for Kamakazi pilots who committed suicide! They tried to soften this part of the story for the western audience but it did not ring true. Jiro was a Nationalist. But, regardless, the movie was marvelous and I hope that it wins for Best Animation. The music too was fabulous.
Oscar Nominated Animation Films
"The five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Animated Shorts. Feral (USA), in which a wild boy, found in the woods and brought back to civilization, tries to adapt to a strange new environment; Walt Disney Animation Studios' Get a Horse! (USA), a contemporary homage to the first shorts featuring Mickey Mouse, with all-new, black-and-white, hand-drawn animation; Mr. Hublot (Luxembourg/France), about a withdrawn, idiosyncratic character made partially of mechanical parts whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of the dog Robot Pet; Possessions (Japan), in which an 18th Century man, lost on a stormy night deep in the mountains, enters a small shrine that suddenly turns into a room in a different world; and Room on the Broom (UK), based on the children's picture book by Julia Donaldson, about a kind witch who invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat. I loved Room on the Broom best of all!
Non-Stop
"Liam Neeson (Taken) stars in Non-Stop, a suspense thriller played out at 40,000 feet in the air. During a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, US Air Marshal Bill Marks (Neeson) receives a series of cryptic text messages demanding that he instruct the airline to transfer $150 million into an off-shore account. Until he secures the money, a passenger on his flight will be killed every 20 minutes. The film reunites Neeson with director Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) and co-stars Julianne Moore." One sits on the edge of their seat.
It was a great pop-corn movie. A bit corny in the story line but it holds up in the suspense.
Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
I remember everything from when I first saw it way back when! A very fine and well-done film even though it romanticized these murderers.
No One Around, 1937
Robert Montgomery. Rosalind Russell. An engaging Irish handyman charms his way into an elderly invalid's home and ultimately sways her niece to fall for him too even though she suspects, correctly, that he is a murderer and plans on murdering both of them. Very suspenseful!
Kidon
Israeli. On January 19, 2010, Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a terrorist, was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. The local police accused Mossad, specifically the Kidon unit and released security camera footage showing Israeli agents caught on tape in the preparation and execution of the murder. This immediately made headlines all over the world and inspired the director of this film to turn this story into an espionage comedy. I thought it was stupid and boring and convoluted and impossible to follow. I could have cared less. It could have been a great suspense film, instead of a screwball whatever.
Generation One
"Acclaimed as a German "Band of Brothers" the blockbuster Generation War vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler. Level-headed, highly decorated officer Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) goes off to the eastern front with his sensitive younger brother Friedhelm (Tom Schilling). Deeply in love with Wilhelm is Charlotte (Miriam Stein), a young nurse who looks forward to serving in the Red Cross. Greta (Katherina Schüttler) is a talented singer who longs to become another Marlene Dietrich, while her Jewish boyfriend Viktor (Ludwig Trepte) fights for his life while hiding among members of the Polish Resistance. Through extraordinary performances, these five exceptional young German actors fill their archetypal characters with the certainty of youth, and then allow it to drain away slowly with each successive month of war. Valor, courage, and betrayal come to the fore in this powerful German epic that shows the everyday realities of wartime life from a deeply personal perspective. Shown in two parts, each with separate admission. (Fully subtitled)"
The Lunchbox
"Middle class housewife Ila is trying once again to add some spice to her marriage, this time through her cooking. She desperately hopes that this new recipe will finally arouse some kind of reaction from her neglectful husband. She prepares a special lunchbox to be delivered to him at work, but, unbeknown st to her, it is mistakenly delivered to another office worker, Saajan, a lonely man on the verge of retirement. Curious about the lack of reaction from her husband, Ila puts a little note in the following day's lunchbox, in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery.
This begins a series of lunchbox notes between Saajan and Ila, and the mere comfort of communicating with a stranger anonymously soon evolves into an unexpected friendship. Gradually, their notes become little confessions about their loneliness, memories, regrets, fears, and even small joys. They each discover a new sense of self and find an anchor to hold on to in the big city of Mumbai that so often crushes hopes and dreams. Still strangers physically, Ila and Saajan become lost in a virtual relationship that could jeopardize both their realities." I loved this small independent intimate lovely, lovely film. I loved watching the culture and traditions of Indian life. It was all good.
The Trip to Bountiful
Cicely Tyson. Blair Underwood. Vanessa Williams. An elderly black woman embarks on a bus trip to her hometown in Bountiful, Texas against the wishes of her son and daughter-in-law, with whom she does not get along. To me, it is a testament of getting old and angry and bitter, of raging against the night, of memory. I found it sad for an old lady to be seeking comfort and kindness in the hands of a stranger. All anyone wants is to be heard.
It Happened One Night, 1934
Claudette Colbert. Clark Gable. "Frank Capra's classic about a spoiled heiress on the lam from her father and the gruff reporter who hooks up with her as they travel northwest and engage in a series of misadventures and begin to fall for each other over mishaps and comedy and misunderstanding." Colbert wore the same outfit the entire film! I found it fun and cheerful and full of capers and laughter but ultimately predictable and dated.
The Great Lie, 1941
Mary Astor. Bette Davis. Hattie McDowell. Jerome Cown. George Brent. A wealthy woman (Davis) and a concert pianist (Astor) are both in love with the same man - who gets Astor pregnant but is married to Davis. While off on a secret mission for the government, Davis takes the baby as her own and pretends that she is the mother. Ultimately, the truth comes out and it turns out as it should. Considered one of the great films of the decade, it does feel dated indeed.
The Scars of Shame, 1924
Silent Film. A black concert want be pianist marries a woman from a lower class and then hides his marriage in shame.
In time, this conflict causes her to run off as an entertainer in a bar and he gets put in prison for taking the blame for when she gets shot, although he is innocent. She kills herself at the end because of her shame of what she did to him and finding out that he never loved her but felt responsible for her instead. Everyone is black in this cast but most of the blacks look white, even Jewish!
Board Walk, 1979
Ruth Gordon. Lee Strasbourg. A tender, loving realistic story of a couple who has been married for fifty years is caught up with the violence that has moved into their Cony Island neighborhood - how they deal with the family dynamics and issues. It is a Jewish story of the immigrant working class, un-educated experience. The characters were familiar. Even though the film feels dated, the issues are not. I loved it.
The Children are Watching Us, 1942
Italian. Isa Pola. Luciano DeAmbosis. A profoundly sad film of a break-up of a marriage seen through the eyes of a four-year-old little boy and the devastation this havoc plays upon his soul and heart and how it tears him apart, especially when he sees his mother with her lover and then when she abandons hi. A remarkable film on a shoe-string budget.
One Day, 2011
Jim Sturgess. Anne Hathaway. Patricia Clarkson. They meet every year in July over 20 years, as their lives intersect and they learn to grow up and become adults. A lovely romantic film.
Noah
Mao's Last Dancer, 2009
Seen many times, this true moving film of immigrant desire to flee a communist country, told through a dancer from China, is quite wonderful. I own it!
Walking With The Enemy
Land Ho
Yves Saint Laurent
Blackout, 1954
Make Way For Tomorrow, 1937
Boyhood
Calvary
I feel tortured and dirty afterwards.
There's Always Tomorrow, 1956
Fred MacMurray. Barbara Stanwyck. A toy-company executive who is neglected and taken advantage of at home by his wife and three children and through business hooks up in a surprising reunion with a sympathetic old flame and sparks begin to fly! She has integrity and is not chasing him at all and ultimately brings him back to his family. I fell asleep.
Hearts Of The World, 1918
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 1963
Lucy
From LA FEMME NIKITA and THE PROFESSIONAL to THE FIFTH ELEMENT, writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Now, Besson directs Scarlett Johansson in LUCY, an action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic. The movie was detached as one could not have human emotions and pull the brain into full capacity. Either/Or. It was unduly violent, the Koreans were presented poorly, brutal and cold, and the entire film carried a coldness. LSD type drugs leaked into Lucy's body as she was being used as a mule and gave her superhuman powers. OK.
Baby Face, 1933
Barbara Stanwyck. George Brent. Provocative, in its day, of a woman who uses sex as power to advance herself out of poverty and into wealth, marriage and success. I have seen it many times and am stunned by how relevant and classic it remains.
Canopy
"Singapore, February 9, 1942. The Japanese invasion is underway. Jim (Khan Chittenden), an Australian fighter pilot, wakes up dangling from a tree by his parachute strings somewhere in the middle of a vast jungle overrun by hostile forces. As night falls, he forges into the danger he must navigate in search of sanctuary when he encounters a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter, Seng (Mo Tzu-Yi). Injured and frightened, he also seeks to survive their tenuous surroundings and common enemy. The men realize that their only hope of persevering lies with each other as their journey begins the exploration of the collision of war and nature and its impact on humanity." The movie was unique in its unfolding and development. Slow. Confusing. Deliberate pace, as you became the characters as they perceived their hostile, enemy environment. For me, when it ended, I was ready.
I had no interest in hearing what the Director had to say. I could not believe how they survived without food. War film.
Thoroughly Modern Millie, 1967
Julie Andrews. Mary Tyler Moore. Two small town girls remake themselves into modern girls in the roaring 20's when they come to the big city in search of finding and landing a rich husband. I only saw half. Cute. Bored.
Harry and Me
"Henry & Me tells the courageous story of Jack (voice of Austin Williams), a brave young boy who is dealt a life-changing blow. Low on confidence and filled with self-doubt, hope seems lost until a mysterious stranger named Henry (Richard Gere) appears. With the touch of his pin, Henry sweeps Jack away to a magical world where illness no longer exists and New York Yankee legends play forever. The incredible journey brings Jack face to face with Babe Ruth (Chazz Palminteri), Thurman Munson (Paul Simon), Lefty Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Mickey Mantle (David Mantle)—who all teach Jack to face his fears and never give up. The movie climaxes at Yankee stadium, where Jack must test his newfound courage to save the season and find his way home. Featuring an all-star cast of unforgettable characters, Henry & Me is a heartwarming animated movie experience for the entire family with a message of hope: when life throws a curve... swing away! Official Web Site" I was the only one in the entire theater. A forgettable film. One cliche after the next. The entire dialogue was clique. One hour and six minutes long. It was an entire baseball metaphor. I don't particularly care for baseball. I thought it would be about illness and that I could relate to it but it was not because of the animation but because of the baseball!
My Old Lady
"Filmed on location in a ravishing Paris of quiet back streets and familiar locales, My Old Lady is a touching romantic drama about inheritance and past secrets coming home to roost. Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline) is a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment from his estranged father. But when he arrives in France to sell the vast domicile, he's shocked to discover a live-in tenant. His apartment is a viager—an ancient French real estate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale—and the feisty English woman Mathilde Girard (Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"), who has lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas) for many years, is not prepared to budge. With no place to go, Mathias strikes a tentative lodging arrangement with Mathilde, instantly clashing with suspicious, lovelorn Chloé over his private dealings with a rapacious property developer. With its unique blend of comedy, drama and ultimately romance, My Old Lady marks the directorial debut of internationally celebrated playwright Israel Horovitz, adapting his own hit play." The movie was tedious and boring and slow moving and I would have walked out had I not been. I hate plays that are made into film and retain that quality. The actors are superb but it was written not by a screenwriter but by the play writer. It did not work and will be a flop.
Coal Miner's Daughter, 1980
Sissy Spacek. Tommy Lee Jones. Now this movie has stood the test of time. It is fabulous and so well done and authentic. Our two lead actors went through a great deal and survive and along and turbulent marriage. Spacek did all of her own singing. She was on Oscar for this portrayal of country music star Loretta Lynn. It tells the story of her Kentucky coal miner background and how she went from honkey-tonk joints to her triumph of the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Fabulous movie.
The Green Prince
Dear Friends,
I'm No Angel, 1933
Mae West. Cary Grant. West plays an 'adventurers" gal, a prostitute, who tangles with all kinds of men until she gets a millionaire whom she secretly loves and does so by brandishing a million-dollar breach-of--contract law suit. West plays a tough talking gal, surrounded by two black maids. She struts around giving wisecracks. This film was made before censorship when innuendoes were obvious and tiered. Cute film!
Caged, 1950
Eleanor Parker. Hope Emerson. Contact with criminals in a prison transforms this innocent, kind and young woman into an embittered, hardened hard core criminal and convict where she fights to survive among murderers, thieves and whores, brutal inmates who do not have her back. Parkers was nominated for Best Actress in this role and she is truly outstanding. The movie kept my interest but did not have a Hollywood ending.
Skeleton Twins
"In the hilarious and emotional The Skeleton Twins, twins Maggie (Kristen Wiig,Bridesmaids) and Milo (Bill Hader, "Saturday Night Live") lead separate lives on opposite sides of the country. After many years of estrangement, both feel that they're at the end of their ropes, and an unexpected reunion forces them to confront how their lives went so wrong. For Maggie, that means re-examining her marriage to sweet "nature frat boy" Lance (Luke Wilson) and her own self-destructive tendencies, while Milo must face the pain of an early heartbreak he never quite got past. As the twins' reunion reinvigorates them both, they realize the key to fixing their lives just may lie in accepting the past and mending their relationship with each other." I was not crazy about this movie - these actors come across to me as such losers. Damaged beyond, filled with cliques, I thought it portrayed American culture at its worse. Why do I want to hang out with these people for two hours?
Wild Orchids, 1929
Great Garbo. Lewis Stone. Silent film. A neglected wife is chased down by this Java Prince while accompanying her husband to Java who seems oblivious by the deceit of his male companion toward his wife. He is an older man and this younger man is dashing. It was a wonderful film - the dialogue as relevant today as it was seventy years ago. Garbo has the most beautiful hands.
Your Cheatin' Heart 1964
George Hamilton. Susan Olivier. Biography of legendary country western singer, Hank Williams Sr. This film charts his short life (died at age 29) through his guitar-strumming boyhood, and his meteoric rise to fame with the hit title song, his appearances at the Grand Old Opry and his battles with the bottle. The predicable life of fame and fortune and drink, however, this film was fabulous. I loved it.
Tracks
"Director John Curran (THE PAINTED VEIL, WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE) and the producers of THE KINGS SPEECH bring you the film TRACKS, which tells the remarkable true story of Robyn Davidson (Wasikowska), a young woman who leaves her life in the city to make a solo trek through almost 2,000 miles of sprawling Australian desert. Accompanied by only her dog and four unpredictable camels, she sets off on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Along the way, she meets National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan (Driver) who begins to photograph her voyage."
This marvelous film is a must see. It is a take off on a Hollywood version of Wild. But, it has been released before Wild. Her brave journey is a remarkable story because nothing really did happen. She found her camels. She found her compass. Because of her photographer Jewish friend, whom she sneered and dismissed, he ended up saving her life by planting water for her, by keeping in touch with her, by over-seeing her safety, by stemming off the journalists. Without his protection, she would have perished. I was surprised she was not raped and left to die. I loved this film. I was amazed by how much Wasikowska resembled Davidson. Must see.
The Single Standard, 1929
Greta Garbo. Nils Asther. Debutante turned wife and mother is tempted to return to old boyfriend, whom she created a scandal with when she went on a boat trip with him for several weeks, unmarried. He returns and she is torn about returning to him and forsaking her husband, who wants to kill himself, and her young son. Garbo is always magnificent in her style and acting and femininity and beauty, especially her graceful hands that she uses so eloquently. It is hard to believe that she was bi-sexual. I just adore her.
Two Faces of January
Screenwriter Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove, Drive) makes a stylish directing debut with this sleek thriller set in Greece and Istanbul, 1962, and adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel. Intrigue begins at the Parthenon when wealthy American tourists Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his young wife Collete (Kirsten Dunst) meet American expat Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a scammer working as a tour guide. Instead of becoming his latest marks, the two befriend him, but a murder at the couple's hotel puts all three on the run together and creates a precarious bond between them as the trio's allegiance is put to the test.
This suspenseful and terrific film left me gripped to my chair. Loved it. Dunst was terrific in her role and her style!
Possessed, 1931
Joan Crawford. Clark Gable. A small-town factory worker flees to Manhattan and becomes the mistress of a wealthy lawyer for over three years. But, her lawyer decides to run in the gubernatorial race this secret romance is exposed. I loved the dialogue.
Gone Girl
"The haunting thriller Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, Fight Club) and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn, unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife? Also starring Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry." The characters were cold, especially Amy, and this film is deeply cynical. Marriage. How we are played by the media. Perception. What is truth and what is not? How can one trust anyone? An excellent psychological thriller.
The Learning Tree, 1954
Kyle Johnson. Estelle Evans. Gordon Parks autobiographical boyhood story of his black experience growing up in the 1920's in Kansas. Parks produced, directed and wrote the musical score.
Min and Bill, 1930
Marie Dressler. Wallace Berry. Dressler won best Actress for an Oscar for her role as a crusty waterfront hotel owner who , with her boyfriend, a local fisherman, cares for a young orphan abandoned girl whom authorities threaten to take away because they do not feel Dressler is a fit mother. But when her biological tramp, mean mother appears, Dressler's protective and loyal devotion to this girl make her do things to protect her at all costs.
A marvelous film.
A Christmas Carol, 1936
Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their six-year-old son, Keita, is not ‘their’ son: the hospital gave them the wrong baby.
Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between ‘nature’ and ‘nurture.’ Seeing Midori’s devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a ‘father’ all these years? This is the moving story of a man who finally faces himself when he encounters an unexpected wall for the first time in his life." Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda. Masaharu Fukuyama. This exquisite and touching sensitive film shows the great depth of emotion that lies underneath the Japanese persona. I liked how when vulnerable and emotional issues needed to be addressed, you respected the person by showing them your back. It became less harsh and allowed them not to feel shame. It was an extraordinary piece of film work — not a film for everyone because of its pace but it felt real and heartbreaking.
Live Action Shorts (Films)
"Don't miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Live Action Short! Program includes: "Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?" (Finland), in which Mother Sini, late for a wedding, is going crazy since nobody else in her family seems to be able to do anything right; "Helium" (Denmark), in which a hospital's eccentric janitor helps a young dying boy regain the joy and happiness of life; "Just Before Losing Everything" (France), in which Miriam hurries to pick up her children to take them to her work place, and explains to her boss that she has to leave the region in a rush; "That Wasn’t Me" (Spain), the story of Paula and Kaney, an African child and a Spanish woman, who could have nothing in common, but will get to join their lives forever through a life-giving shot; and "The Voorman Problem" (UK), in which Doctor Williams is called in to examine the enigmatic Mr. Voorman, a prisoner who believes he is a god." My favorite.
Roots, 1976
Watching this over thirty years later, it felt tame and held in — unlike 12 Years A Slave which was raw and intense.
There was a cleanness to it - it did not possess the brutality that we have come to now know. But what stunned me was how I remembered every scene so well — and anticipated everything that was going to happen! And, I had only seen it once. Has it stood up to time — after another plagiarized the truth behind original thought, it has not but it was still absorbing and entertaining and pivotal to our history.
"Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor and the visionary behind the desktop video revolution, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer ("Girl with a Pearl Earring") manage to paint so photo-realistically—150 years before the invention of photography? The epic research project Jenison embarks on to test his theory is as extraordinary as what he discovers. Spanning eight years, Jenison's adventure takes him to Delft, Holland, where Vermeer painted his masterpieces, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artist David Hockney, and even to Buckingham Palace to see a Vermeer masterpiece in the collection of the Queen. Also featuring Martin Mull, Professor Philip Steadman and Dr. Colin Blakemore. Directed by Teller, and co-produced by Farley Ziegler and Teller's partner, illusionist, comic and narrator Penn Jillette." I found the movie sluggish and small - a fascinating conclusion to a mystery that has eluded the art world for 400 years, finally solved! It could have been far more expansive, going into the world of Vermeer and why his art is elusive and genius, but it stayed on the inventor and what he accomplished.
The Last of the UnJust
Claude Lanzmann. "Nineteen seventy-five In Rome, Claude Lanzmann filmed a series of interviews with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last President of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, the only "Elder of the Jews" not to have been killed during the war. A rabbi in Vienna, following the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, Murmelstein fought bitterly with Adolf Eichmann, week after week for seven years, managing to help around 121,000 Jews leave the country, and preventing the liquidation of the ghetto.
Twenty-twelve. Claude Lanzmann, at 87 - without masking anything of the passage of time on men, but showing the incredible permanence of the locations involved - exhumes these interviews shot in Rome, returning to Theresienstadt, the town "given to the Jews by Hitler," a so-called model ghetto, but a ghetto of deceit chosen by Adolf Eichmann to dupe the world. We discover the extraordinary personality of Benjamin Murmelstein: a man blessed with a dazzling intelligence and a true courage, which, along with an unrivaled memory, makes him a wonderfully wry, sardonic and authentic storyteller. Through these three periods, from Nisko in Poland to Theresienstadt, and from Vienna to Rome, the film provides an unprecedented insight into the genesis of the Final Solution. It reveals the true face of Eichmann, and exposes without artifice the savage contradictions of the Jewish Councils." The movie was way too long, 3.5 hours. It needed a massive editing job and it was released thirty years too late. The more uninformed Holocaust student would have more of a purpose to see it than me.
The Monuments Men
"Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of World War II to rescue the world's artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men find themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1,000 years of culture, they risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements. Based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter, the film stars director and co-writer George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett." I found the movie a C+. It was boring at parts, a copy cat of other films, the suspense felt false and contrived, the humor fell flat, there was no chemistry between the players except for Damon and Clooney. Blanchett and the Jewish soldier stole the film. Goodman was utterly miscast. It could have been an interesting film but it fell utterly flat.
In Bloom
"Early nineties, in Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast (Abkhazia) and vigilante justice that plague society. But for Eka and Natia, inseparable fourteen-year-old friends, life just unfolds: in the street, at school, with friends or elder sisters who are already dealing with men’s dominance, early marriage and disillusioned love. For these two girls in bloom, life just goes on…." I loved this gem of a film. The transitions were clumsy, the photography simple, but the intimacy of the story became a universal sad truth, a travail of life in the former Soviet block. Lives are without opportunity and for young girls, their futures are dark and bleak, limited in scope and narrow in perspective. I felt profoundly sad.
And The Oscar Goes To …
"A look at the history of the Academy Awards features clips from past ceremonies and Oscar nominated and winning productions, plus interviews with stars, filmmakers and behind-the-camera talents." I felt this was extremely well done and interesting and entertaining.
Her block-The Black & White, 2013
Alan Mandell. Doug Budin. "This remarkable documentary details political cartoonist Herbert Block's 55 years at the Washington Post, a legacy marked by 3 Pulitzer Prizes, The coveted Medal of Freedom and his crucial role in exposing the Watergate scandal." This was a visionary, a magnificent artist and brilliant in his wit and ability to hone in on details that even the characters involved had not thought of. It was terrific.
The Wind Rises
"In acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, Jiro (voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt)—inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni—dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world's most innovative and accomplished airplane designers. The film chronicles much of his life, depicting key historical events, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan's plunge into war. Jiro meets and falls in love with Naoko (Emily Blunt), and grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo (John Krasinski). Writer/director Miyazaki pays tribute to engineer Jiro Horikoshi and author Tatsuo Hori in this epic tale of love, perseverance, and the challenges of living and making choices in a turbulent world. The English-language cast also includes Elijah Wood, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Grey, William H. Macy and Werner Herzog. Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature.: This simply marvelous film, that choked me up inside, is not for young children. It is way too sophisticated — in fact it could have been a wonderful film with real actors and not animation. There were only two things that bothered me. One. All the Japanese characters had round eyes. I know what that is about but still.
Second. We are talking about building weapon planes to destroy us during WW2. These are the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor. At the end of the story, one of the characters says to Jiro, none of your planes returned from the war. Well yes, that is because they were used for Kamakazi pilots who committed suicide! They tried to soften this part of the story for the western audience but it did not ring true. Jiro was a Nationalist. But, regardless, the movie was marvelous and I hope that it wins for Best Animation. The music too was fabulous.
Oscar Nominated Animation Films
"The five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Animated Shorts. Feral (USA), in which a wild boy, found in the woods and brought back to civilization, tries to adapt to a strange new environment; Walt Disney Animation Studios' Get a Horse! (USA), a contemporary homage to the first shorts featuring Mickey Mouse, with all-new, black-and-white, hand-drawn animation; Mr. Hublot (Luxembourg/France), about a withdrawn, idiosyncratic character made partially of mechanical parts whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of the dog Robot Pet; Possessions (Japan), in which an 18th Century man, lost on a stormy night deep in the mountains, enters a small shrine that suddenly turns into a room in a different world; and Room on the Broom (UK), based on the children's picture book by Julia Donaldson, about a kind witch who invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat. I loved Room on the Broom best of all!
Non-Stop
"Liam Neeson (Taken) stars in Non-Stop, a suspense thriller played out at 40,000 feet in the air. During a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, US Air Marshal Bill Marks (Neeson) receives a series of cryptic text messages demanding that he instruct the airline to transfer $150 million into an off-shore account. Until he secures the money, a passenger on his flight will be killed every 20 minutes. The film reunites Neeson with director Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) and co-stars Julianne Moore." One sits on the edge of their seat.
It was a great pop-corn movie. A bit corny in the story line but it holds up in the suspense.
Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
I remember everything from when I first saw it way back when! A very fine and well-done film even though it romanticized these murderers.
No One Around, 1937
Robert Montgomery. Rosalind Russell. An engaging Irish handyman charms his way into an elderly invalid's home and ultimately sways her niece to fall for him too even though she suspects, correctly, that he is a murderer and plans on murdering both of them. Very suspenseful!
Kidon
Israeli. On January 19, 2010, Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a terrorist, was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. The local police accused Mossad, specifically the Kidon unit and released security camera footage showing Israeli agents caught on tape in the preparation and execution of the murder. This immediately made headlines all over the world and inspired the director of this film to turn this story into an espionage comedy. I thought it was stupid and boring and convoluted and impossible to follow. I could have cared less. It could have been a great suspense film, instead of a screwball whatever.
Generation One
"Acclaimed as a German "Band of Brothers" the blockbuster Generation War vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler. Level-headed, highly decorated officer Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) goes off to the eastern front with his sensitive younger brother Friedhelm (Tom Schilling). Deeply in love with Wilhelm is Charlotte (Miriam Stein), a young nurse who looks forward to serving in the Red Cross. Greta (Katherina Schüttler) is a talented singer who longs to become another Marlene Dietrich, while her Jewish boyfriend Viktor (Ludwig Trepte) fights for his life while hiding among members of the Polish Resistance. Through extraordinary performances, these five exceptional young German actors fill their archetypal characters with the certainty of youth, and then allow it to drain away slowly with each successive month of war. Valor, courage, and betrayal come to the fore in this powerful German epic that shows the everyday realities of wartime life from a deeply personal perspective. Shown in two parts, each with separate admission. (Fully subtitled)"
The Lunchbox
"Middle class housewife Ila is trying once again to add some spice to her marriage, this time through her cooking. She desperately hopes that this new recipe will finally arouse some kind of reaction from her neglectful husband. She prepares a special lunchbox to be delivered to him at work, but, unbeknown st to her, it is mistakenly delivered to another office worker, Saajan, a lonely man on the verge of retirement. Curious about the lack of reaction from her husband, Ila puts a little note in the following day's lunchbox, in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery.
This begins a series of lunchbox notes between Saajan and Ila, and the mere comfort of communicating with a stranger anonymously soon evolves into an unexpected friendship. Gradually, their notes become little confessions about their loneliness, memories, regrets, fears, and even small joys. They each discover a new sense of self and find an anchor to hold on to in the big city of Mumbai that so often crushes hopes and dreams. Still strangers physically, Ila and Saajan become lost in a virtual relationship that could jeopardize both their realities." I loved this small independent intimate lovely, lovely film. I loved watching the culture and traditions of Indian life. It was all good.
The Trip to Bountiful
Cicely Tyson. Blair Underwood. Vanessa Williams. An elderly black woman embarks on a bus trip to her hometown in Bountiful, Texas against the wishes of her son and daughter-in-law, with whom she does not get along. To me, it is a testament of getting old and angry and bitter, of raging against the night, of memory. I found it sad for an old lady to be seeking comfort and kindness in the hands of a stranger. All anyone wants is to be heard.
It Happened One Night, 1934
Claudette Colbert. Clark Gable. "Frank Capra's classic about a spoiled heiress on the lam from her father and the gruff reporter who hooks up with her as they travel northwest and engage in a series of misadventures and begin to fall for each other over mishaps and comedy and misunderstanding." Colbert wore the same outfit the entire film! I found it fun and cheerful and full of capers and laughter but ultimately predictable and dated.
The Great Lie, 1941
Mary Astor. Bette Davis. Hattie McDowell. Jerome Cown. George Brent. A wealthy woman (Davis) and a concert pianist (Astor) are both in love with the same man - who gets Astor pregnant but is married to Davis. While off on a secret mission for the government, Davis takes the baby as her own and pretends that she is the mother. Ultimately, the truth comes out and it turns out as it should. Considered one of the great films of the decade, it does feel dated indeed.
The Scars of Shame, 1924
Silent Film. A black concert want be pianist marries a woman from a lower class and then hides his marriage in shame.
In time, this conflict causes her to run off as an entertainer in a bar and he gets put in prison for taking the blame for when she gets shot, although he is innocent. She kills herself at the end because of her shame of what she did to him and finding out that he never loved her but felt responsible for her instead. Everyone is black in this cast but most of the blacks look white, even Jewish!
Board Walk, 1979
Ruth Gordon. Lee Strasbourg. A tender, loving realistic story of a couple who has been married for fifty years is caught up with the violence that has moved into their Cony Island neighborhood - how they deal with the family dynamics and issues. It is a Jewish story of the immigrant working class, un-educated experience. The characters were familiar. Even though the film feels dated, the issues are not. I loved it.
The Children are Watching Us, 1942
Italian. Isa Pola. Luciano DeAmbosis. A profoundly sad film of a break-up of a marriage seen through the eyes of a four-year-old little boy and the devastation this havoc plays upon his soul and heart and how it tears him apart, especially when he sees his mother with her lover and then when she abandons hi. A remarkable film on a shoe-string budget.
One Day, 2011
Jim Sturgess. Anne Hathaway. Patricia Clarkson. They meet every year in July over 20 years, as their lives intersect and they learn to grow up and become adults. A lovely romantic film.
Noah
My daughter Yael, went to see this movie last night and she does not understand why the critics panned it. She said it was the most Jewish interpretation she has seen, that it was spectacular, that it is a huge success in Israel, that her Jewish religious friend from Israel cried! She said that the writers of the film, both Jewish, spent over a decade researching and writing the story, that they returned to the original sources of the Gemorah, the Midrash, the Torah, Jewish legends and that the entire film is based on Jewish legends that they discovered in all the Jewish commentaries written on this story. That everything is pretty much accurate based on Jewish legends and interpretations. She said it was all Jewish! That when the critics speak of it not being Christian or Jewish or Islamic but completely secular, they do not know what they were talking about - which makes sense if you are not educated in the Commentaries and Jewish Legends and Midrash and Gemorah and The Bible! She said that nearly everything, the details and the story are taken from these Jewish sources, that the writers were steeped in Jewish thought and interpretation. She mentioned for example, that the water does not just come down from the sky but also up from the earth. This is in Jewish commentary! She said the Critics completely missed it entirely! She loved it. She said that it is an action-oriented film, like Taken, not deep, but that the ending now makes complete sense to her, that she never really understood the ending in the Bible but that now it makes sense. She went in to the film exhausted and came out utterly refreshed! I am now going to see it, for sure! And, I did and it was a dark, version indeed!
Mao's Last Dancer, 2009
Seen many times, this true moving film of immigrant desire to flee a communist country, told through a dancer from China, is quite wonderful. I own it!
Walking With The Enemy
Walking with the Enemy is an upcoming American action drama film directed by Mark Schmidt, and scripted by Kenny Golde and Mark Schmidt. The film stars Jonas Armstrong, Ben Kingsley, Simon Kunz,Hannah Tointon, Simon Dutton, Mark Wells, and Charles Hubbell.
Against the backdrop of war-torn Budapest, Hungary during the Second World War, a young man became a hero to the Jewish people. As a rabbi’s son from a small town called Kisvárda, Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum fought against great odds in one of Hungary’s most terrifying periods. During the Nazi occupation in 1944, he and a group of resistance fighters, managed to outsmart the German machine and save thousands of Jews from deportation and extermination in the camps.
Thanks to his courage and Aryan features, Rosenbaum was able to disguise himself in the uniform of the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian Nazi party, in order to obtain information on Jewish individuals and families that were to be seized. He would then proceed to their homes, disguised in uniform, barking orders and threats while corralling the families into the Arrow Cross vehicles. He was persuading even to those he was saving. He would only reveal himself as a Jew once they reached their destination. One of the destinations was an old glass factory that had been taken over by the Swiss government. It was a diplomatic facility that printed protective Swiss passports for Hungarian Jews during the war. It also became a safe-house for those fortunate enough to be rescued by Rosenbaum and his comrades.
Unfortunately unable to save his own family from Hitler's "Final Solution", Rosenbaum selflessly gave every effort to save his people, thus earning every right to be called a hero. After the war, many individuals he personally rescued, would talk to him about this brave, Jewish hero who they owed their life to. And in perfect balance with his character, he never took credit.
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Elizabeth Smart's favorite movie that sustained her while she was in captivity, it is a moving teenage film about a girl during the Depression who runs away and became part of a circus diving with a running horse. She goes blind and through sheer determination continues to do this death defying act blind, and no one knowing. Quite remarkable. This is a true story.
An Ideal Husband, 1947
Paulette Goddard. Michael Wilding. Oscar Wilde's satirical play exposing a shady financial scheme blackmail and ultimate resolution by a rich lady who is using her wealth and power to bring down a decent man who made a terrible mistake in his youth. The back-and-forth in dialogue is clever and witty and classic. Nothing has changed in over a 100 years.
The Story of Three Loves, 1953
James Mason. Moira Shearer. Kirk Douglas. Leslie Caron. Aboard a cruise ship, three passengers carry the weight of past love affairs: a ballet dancer and a choreographer; a governess and her young tutor; a trapeze artist and a survivor from a concentration camp. Each story leads into the next story, each story is told in flashback and each story has nothing to do with the other one. I like the Kirk Douglas, trapeze artist the best.
The Remains of the Day, 1993
The Good Earth, 1937
Pearl S. Buck who won the Pulitzer Prize for her book. It is about a simply, uneducated former slave wife of a farmer who goes from extreme poverty and hunger to great wealth. Luise Rainer won Best Actress award about her life in rural China in the 1900's. Paul Muni plays her husband. Life and relationships are hard, with little connection and hard won respect. A marvelous film.
A Man And A Woman, 1966
Locke
"Driven by an unforgettable performance by Tom Hardy (Lawless, Warrior, Inception),Locke is a thrillingly unique cinematic experience of a man fighting to salvage all that is important to him. Ivan Locke (Hardy) has worked diligently to craft the life he has envisioned, dedicating himself to the job that he loves and the family he adores. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul. All taking place over the course of one absolutely riveting car ride, Locke is an exploration of how one decision can lead to the complete collapse of a life. Written and directed by Steven Knight (screenwriter ofEastern Promises, Amazing Grace and Dirty Pretty Things)." This original and fresh, fabulous, simply fabulous film is not to be missed. The entire movie talks place in a car, with one visible actor, and yet I sat on the edge of my seat with the mounting tension. The entire film was told through dialogue and its realism was profound and real. I loved it, madly.
Ida
The photography was one of the most beautiful and exquisite I have seen in film. I felt Ida, who was brought up abandoned was walled off from any emotion in life and so well defended and reserved, it was hard to relate to her. To me, the aunt was a far more interesting character, far more real and emotionally carried the film. Without this aunt, there would be no movie at all. They took an unknown and inexperienced actress to play Ida and it showed. All the critics praised Ida's acting. I thought she could not act at all! This was her first gig, she was a complete unknown that the Director picked up in a restaurant. However, the Aunt is one of Poland's most famous actresses.The aunt is one of the great Polish actresses and must have been gorgeous when she was young. It was a marvelous movie but not for everyone. However, the Aunt is one of Poland's most famous actresses. I thought it was a fine piece of film work - not for everyone. Cary would hate the pace of it.
I thought it unfolded well. As a piece of Holocaust literature, it was extremely well done and you should see it.
It moves and unfolds slowly but I felt the pace worked beautifully with the type of film that it is. I would not recommend to anyone but you - you see the Polish landscape, the life under Communism, the sadness and the loss and the devastating effect the Shoah had on its survivors. It is all tasteful and not in your face but subtle and profoundly, at the end, powerful.
My Favorite Wife, 1940
Irene Dunne. Cary Grant. A woman returns home to her husband and their children after being marooned on a desert island for seven years. But she has been declared legally dead and he now has a second wife. Cute and fanciful and dated.
Belle
Maleficent
Obvious Child
Winchester '73, 1950
The Long, Long Trailer, 1954
The Actress, 1953
Notorious, 1946
Jersey Boys
"Director Clint Eastwood's big-screen version of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys tells the story of the four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 60's rock group The Four Seasons. Their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the hit songs that influenced a generation, and are now being embraced by a new generation of fans through the stage musical. John Lloyd Young reprises his Tony Award-winning portrayal of the legendary lead singer of The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli. Erich Bergen stars as Bob Gaudio, who wrote or co-wrote all of the group's biggest hits. Also starring Christopher Walken, Michael Lomenda and Vincent Piazza." I loved it as much as the play! And, the music!
Edge of Tomorrow
"The story unfolds in a near future in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, shredding great cities to rubble and leaving millions of human casualties in their wake. No army in the world can match the speed, brutality or seeming prescience of the weapons Mimic fighters or their telepathic commanders. But now the world's armies have joined forces for a last stand offensive against the alien horde, with no second chances. Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped,untrained and ill-equipped into what amounts to little more than a suicide mission. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an Alpha down with him. But, impossibly, he awakens back at the beginning of the same hellish day, and is forced to fight and die again and again. Direct physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop dooming him to live out the same brutal combat over and over. But with each pass, Cage becomes tougher, smarter, and able to engage the Mimics with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt), who has lain waste to more Mimics than anyone on Earth. As Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated battle becomes an opportunity to find the key to annihilating the alien invaders and saving the Earth." This tedious and boring and dull, clique film, where no nation can be evil anymore so they now create Aliens, was repetitious, ridiculous, and I kept thinking of the 3 Lost Boys of Israel. I was utterly boring.
And So It Goes
Directed by Rob Reiner. Michael Douglas. Diane Keaton. The film was boring and tedious and clique and stupid. Is there nothing original anymore? Keaton has no sex appeal, is annoying, unappealing, and there was no chemistry and her over dramatic acting was over the top. I could not wait until it ended and it will be a flop. As well as it should be.
The Place Beyond The Pines, 2012
Ryan Gosling. Bradley Cooper. A scum bag stalks his woman and son, becomes a bank robber and finally and thankfully dies. Cooper, the cop who killed him, life merges with him over the next 15 years. The two sons are scum too. The movie is hard and meaningless and purposefulness. It was boring actually but good acting.
Amerika
Someone once observed: "America is great because she is good; if she ever ceases to be good she will cease to be great." Today that notion of the essential goodness of America is under attack, replaced by another story in which theft and plunder are seen as the defining features of American history - from the theft of Native American and Mexican lands and the exploitation of African labor to a contemporary foreign policy said to be based on stealing oil and a capitalist system that robs people of their "fair share". Our founding fathers warned us that, although the freedoms they gave us were hard fought, they could very easily be lost. America stands at a crossroads, and the way we understand our past will determine our future. The movie takes 21st-century Americans into the future by first visiting our past." Done by the Director of 2016, this powerful and moving expose of Obama Presidency told through his Far Left Wing ideology communicates the disaster his ideals have been to this country. I also loved the music.
Elizabeth Smart's favorite movie that sustained her while she was in captivity, it is a moving teenage film about a girl during the Depression who runs away and became part of a circus diving with a running horse. She goes blind and through sheer determination continues to do this death defying act blind, and no one knowing. Quite remarkable. This is a true story.
An Ideal Husband, 1947
Paulette Goddard. Michael Wilding. Oscar Wilde's satirical play exposing a shady financial scheme blackmail and ultimate resolution by a rich lady who is using her wealth and power to bring down a decent man who made a terrible mistake in his youth. The back-and-forth in dialogue is clever and witty and classic. Nothing has changed in over a 100 years.
The Story of Three Loves, 1953
James Mason. Moira Shearer. Kirk Douglas. Leslie Caron. Aboard a cruise ship, three passengers carry the weight of past love affairs: a ballet dancer and a choreographer; a governess and her young tutor; a trapeze artist and a survivor from a concentration camp. Each story leads into the next story, each story is told in flashback and each story has nothing to do with the other one. I like the Kirk Douglas, trapeze artist the best.
The Remains of the Day, 1993
Anthony Hopkins. Emma Thompson. Best Picture nominee about an unspoken love that grows between a devoted butler and a much younger housekeeper who are both working in a grand estate in pre WW2 England, around 1936. It was far more realistic than Downton Abbey. I have read and studied a great deal regarding British class society, culture, and subtly. Never have I seen such revisionist history as in Downton Abbey. It is driving me mad and I actually find myself laughing at the stretches that Barnes is taking with the material! This film was realistic and simply wonderful. It will be a classic.
The Good Earth, 1937
Pearl S. Buck who won the Pulitzer Prize for her book. It is about a simply, uneducated former slave wife of a farmer who goes from extreme poverty and hunger to great wealth. Luise Rainer won Best Actress award about her life in rural China in the 1900's. Paul Muni plays her husband. Life and relationships are hard, with little connection and hard won respect. A marvelous film.
A Man And A Woman, 1966
French. Anouk-Aimee. Jean-Louis Trintignant. A widow and a car-racer widower meet at the children's boarding school and fall in love but haunted memories from the past spouses keep them from moving forward. In black and white and then color with no meaning or order. The first two times I saw this film, I thought it wonderful - this time it did not hold it's staying power and I found it boring.
Locke
"Driven by an unforgettable performance by Tom Hardy (Lawless, Warrior, Inception),Locke is a thrillingly unique cinematic experience of a man fighting to salvage all that is important to him. Ivan Locke (Hardy) has worked diligently to craft the life he has envisioned, dedicating himself to the job that he loves and the family he adores. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul. All taking place over the course of one absolutely riveting car ride, Locke is an exploration of how one decision can lead to the complete collapse of a life. Written and directed by Steven Knight (screenwriter ofEastern Promises, Amazing Grace and Dirty Pretty Things)." This original and fresh, fabulous, simply fabulous film is not to be missed. The entire movie talks place in a car, with one visible actor, and yet I sat on the edge of my seat with the mounting tension. The entire film was told through dialogue and its realism was profound and real. I loved it, madly.
Ida
PG-13 • 80 minutes • Polish Playing at: Playhouse 7, Town Center 5, Royal
Eighteen-year-old Anna (stunning newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska), a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative. Naïve, innocent Anna soon finds herself in the presence of her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza), a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider, who shocks her with the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed past, evoking the haunting legacy of the Holocaust and the realities of postwar Communism."
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I thought it unfolded well. As a piece of Holocaust literature, it was extremely well done and you should see it.
It moves and unfolds slowly but I felt the pace worked beautifully with the type of film that it is. I would not recommend to anyone but you - you see the Polish landscape, the life under Communism, the sadness and the loss and the devastating effect the Shoah had on its survivors. It is all tasteful and not in your face but subtle and profoundly, at the end, powerful.
My Favorite Wife, 1940
Irene Dunne. Cary Grant. A woman returns home to her husband and their children after being marooned on a desert island for seven years. But she has been declared legally dead and he now has a second wife. Cute and fanciful and dated.
THE GIRL AND DEATH
From acclaimed director Jos Stelling (THE POINTS MAN, THE ILLUSIONIST, THE FLYING DUTCHMAN) comes THE GIRL AND DEATH, Winner of Best Picture at the Netherlands Film Festival. THE GIRL AND DEATH is a story about the impossible love between Nicolai and the courtesan Elise, a love that is obstructed by materialism, wealth, and the threat of death. In Russia of the post-WWII era, aging doctor Nicolai returns to an old, abandoned hotel, the place where he first met his great love 50 years earlier, and relives his romantic tragedy, a tragedy that happened in the late nineteenth century, and embodies the end of an era and the vibrant hopes and life of both its young couple and of a new world. The hotel still bears the traces of its impressive past. Eventually, it becomes clear why Nicolai has really returned… As ever, Stelling’s unique cinema is based on idiosyncratic humor, stunning images and large emotions. This is a film about time that seems to exist miraculously outside of time…" This romantic haunting film is filled with the most gorgeous classical music and the music flows from sadness to loss to tragedy. It is truly romantic in every sense of the word and utterly absorbing. It is not easy to recommend because of the pace and development. I loved it and stayed to the very end of the credits. We are all marred and scarred by early life experience with love and loss and this film captures it. At the end, the girls death becomes a ghost and she returns until she is reunited and finally set free from her love.
Words and Pictures
A witty romantic drama, Words and Pictures stars the engaging duo of Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen working together on-screen for the first time. Prep school English teacher Jack Marcus (Owen) laments his students' obsession with social media and good grades rather than engaging with the power of the written word. A one-time literary star, Jack has not published in years, filling his spare time with drink versus the art of language. He meets his match in Dina Delsanto (Binoche)—an abstract painter and new teacher on campus, who was once celebrated for her art. From the start, the two flirt and provoke each other with equal relish. With a performance review looming and his teaching job on the line, Jack hatches an inspired plan for galvanizing student interest in their studies: he declares a war between Words and Pictures, confident that the former can convey greater meaning than the latter. Dina and her art students accept the challenge between Jack and his English students, and the battle lines are drawn. Directed by Fred Schepisi. A charming old-fashioned film of middle-aged teachers who battle their demons (alcoholism and health-RA) which they spare with each other. The dialogue and quotations are superb and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and likable film.
Belle
"Belle is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode). Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle's lineage affords her certain privileges, yet her status prevents her from the traditions of noble social standing. While her cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) chases suitors for marriage, Belle is left on the sidelines wondering if she will ever find love. After meeting an idealistic young vicar's son (Sam Reid) bent on changing society, he and Belle help shape Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England." The dialogue and acting and plot development were all superb. It was a deeply satisfying film, how much is true is another story, but this story is well done.
Maleficent
Maleficent explores the untold story of Disney's most iconic villain from the classic film Sleeping Beauty and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turn her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king's newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora (Elle Fanning) is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever." A speed up, spoof special effects film that changed the story to make women powerful and to take their destiny into their own hands. Entertaining and forgettable.
Obvious Child
"For aspiring comedian Donna Stern (Jenny Slate), everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her incredibly relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetic herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job and finds herself pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day, she has to navigate the murky waters of independent adulthood for the first time. As she grapples with an uncertain financial future, an unwanted pregnancy and a surprising new suitor, Donna begins to discover that the most terrifying thing about adulthood isn’t facing it all on her own. It's allowing herself to accept the support and love of others. Never failing to find the comedy and humanity in each awkward situation she encounters, Donna finds out along the way what it means to be as brave in life as she is on stage. Anchored by a breakout performance from Slate, Obvious Child is a winning discovery, packed tight with raw, energetic comedy and moments of poignant human honesty. Written and directed by Gillian Robespierre." A reflection of the sad commentary of young people's lives today, filled with poor judgement, losers, and kicking a good man in the teeth. What Donna does not grasp, nor will it last, is the uncommonly decent human being that she kicks out again and again. Instead, she fills her life with self-absorbed comedy which I did not feel was even funny, but actually pathetic. I liked her - but I did not find her funny. She is a young girl of our times, lost, defensive, pretends that sex is just sex, when really what she is seeking is love.
Winchester '73, 1950
James Steward. Dan Duryea. This western frontier story of a trail to find a stolen rifle leads to murder and romance. Indians are bad. White people are good. Very dated film.
The Long, Long Trailer, 1954
Lucille Ball. Desi Arnez. Upwardly mobile honeymooner who decide to buy a trailer so that they can live together around the country and their trip turns into a nightmare. Funny and cute. It was filmed at Yosemite.
The Actress, 1953
Teresa Wright. Jean Simmons. Spencer Tracy. Anthony Perkins. This movie seems to have been a play, seriously acted with unhappy people whose dreams have been smashed. It is placed around 1910. The actors seem older than they should be. The young girl wants to be an actress. He gave me his word. referring to her father. as he stands in her way but ultimately comes around.
Notorious, 1946
Cary Grant. Ingrid Bergman. Romantic thriller centering on a wine bottle which is the clue to the entire plot. It is on a government agent who is trying to get the goods on a gang of Nazis in Brazil. He enlists a playgirl who accepts a marriage proposal and serves as a spy to the Americans. She infiltrates the group. This is my favorite Hitchcock thriller. I adore this movie. It has everything. Thrilling. Romance. Gorgeous favorite actors. Plot.
Home Fries, 1998
Drew Barrymore. Luke Wilson. Adorable as a pregnant restaurant cashier who falls for an air national guard reservist in this utterly stupid spoof of what is today called comedy. Ridiculous waste of time. Simply awful. Jersey Boys
"Director Clint Eastwood's big-screen version of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys tells the story of the four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 60's rock group The Four Seasons. Their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the hit songs that influenced a generation, and are now being embraced by a new generation of fans through the stage musical. John Lloyd Young reprises his Tony Award-winning portrayal of the legendary lead singer of The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli. Erich Bergen stars as Bob Gaudio, who wrote or co-wrote all of the group's biggest hits. Also starring Christopher Walken, Michael Lomenda and Vincent Piazza." I loved it as much as the play! And, the music!
Edge of Tomorrow
"The story unfolds in a near future in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, shredding great cities to rubble and leaving millions of human casualties in their wake. No army in the world can match the speed, brutality or seeming prescience of the weapons Mimic fighters or their telepathic commanders. But now the world's armies have joined forces for a last stand offensive against the alien horde, with no second chances. Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped,untrained and ill-equipped into what amounts to little more than a suicide mission. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an Alpha down with him. But, impossibly, he awakens back at the beginning of the same hellish day, and is forced to fight and die again and again. Direct physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop dooming him to live out the same brutal combat over and over. But with each pass, Cage becomes tougher, smarter, and able to engage the Mimics with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt), who has lain waste to more Mimics than anyone on Earth. As Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated battle becomes an opportunity to find the key to annihilating the alien invaders and saving the Earth." This tedious and boring and dull, clique film, where no nation can be evil anymore so they now create Aliens, was repetitious, ridiculous, and I kept thinking of the 3 Lost Boys of Israel. I was utterly boring.
And So It Goes
Directed by Rob Reiner. Michael Douglas. Diane Keaton. The film was boring and tedious and clique and stupid. Is there nothing original anymore? Keaton has no sex appeal, is annoying, unappealing, and there was no chemistry and her over dramatic acting was over the top. I could not wait until it ended and it will be a flop. As well as it should be.
The Place Beyond The Pines, 2012
Ryan Gosling. Bradley Cooper. A scum bag stalks his woman and son, becomes a bank robber and finally and thankfully dies. Cooper, the cop who killed him, life merges with him over the next 15 years. The two sons are scum too. The movie is hard and meaningless and purposefulness. It was boring actually but good acting.
Amerika
Someone once observed: "America is great because she is good; if she ever ceases to be good she will cease to be great." Today that notion of the essential goodness of America is under attack, replaced by another story in which theft and plunder are seen as the defining features of American history - from the theft of Native American and Mexican lands and the exploitation of African labor to a contemporary foreign policy said to be based on stealing oil and a capitalist system that robs people of their "fair share". Our founding fathers warned us that, although the freedoms they gave us were hard fought, they could very easily be lost. America stands at a crossroads, and the way we understand our past will determine our future. The movie takes 21st-century Americans into the future by first visiting our past." Done by the Director of 2016, this powerful and moving expose of Obama Presidency told through his Far Left Wing ideology communicates the disaster his ideals have been to this country. I also loved the music.
Chef
"Starting from scratch never tasted so good! In the hearty comedy Chef, Carl Casper (writer/director Jon Favreau) suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman), and is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen—and zest for life and love. Also starring Bobby Cannavale, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt and Robert Downey Jr." This delightful, energetic, light hearted, feel-good comedy was the perfect ingredient after a long painful week of burying the 3 boys from Israel. One left the theater dancing with the Cuban vibe.
Land Ho
Two sixty year-old-men travel to Iceland for a bromance. It was delightful and funny and felt real and genuine.
Collins was the true actor and the doctor was new, acting himself. They improvised a lot. I felt it was a wonderful gem of a film, light and entertaining. Aaron Katz. Martha Stephens, Director and Writers.
Yves Saint Laurent
"In January 1958, Yves Saint Laurent (Pierre Niney)—aged merely 21—was unexpectedly called upon to oversee the legendary Paris fashion house established by recently deceased Christian Dior. All eyes turned to this very young assistant as he presented his first collection for Dior and instantly ascended to the heights of haute couture’s elite class. During Saint Laurent’s breathtaking and groundbreaking show, he met with another fate in being introduced to Pierre Bergé (Guillaume Gallienne), patron of the arts, future love of his life and lifelong business partner. Three years later, the two founded the YvesYves Saint Laurent is at once a captivating story about the making of an icon and a testament to the power of enduring love." The drugs, cocaine, booze, reckless and promiscuous life, the self-absorption, the trampling upon his romantic love, all of it said to me, he was a despicable character who happened to be an extremely talented and visionary fashion icon. To think that he took over The House Of Dior at the age of 21!
Blackout, 1954
Dane Clark. Belinda Lee. A down-on-his-luck American in London takes a beautiful blonde's offer to pay him if he would marry her. The scheme is too good to be rue and he becomes framed in the murder of her father. Stupid film but we watched it to the end. It felt incredibly dated.
Make Way For Tomorrow, 1937
Victir Moore. Beulah Bond. "During the Depression, an elderly couple in the 70's are left homeless after the bank forecloses on their house forcing them to move in with their adult children which proves to be a difficult adjustment for all. Two parents can raise 5 children but 5 children cannot take care of two parents. They are separate forever. It is profoundly sad and I was brought to tears.
Boyhood
"Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's “Yellow” to Arcade Fire's “Deep Blue.” BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It's impossible not to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journeys." I hated it. Ordinary people with an ordinary family with American values with cliques of southern stereotype and counter culture perceptions. I found the film ordinary.
Trouble in Paradise, 1932
Kay Francis. Miriam Hopkins. Herbert Marshal. "Two jewel thieves find themselves caught up in a unexpected love triangle with the bewitching woman whom they had originally intended to rob.
I'll Be Seeing You, 1944
Ginger Rogers. Joseph Cotton. Love blossoms between a shell-shocked GI who is on a medical leave and a convict during Xmas, who is on a furlough after being imprisoned for man slaughter because she killed him as he was trying to rape her. It is a sensitive and touching film of two lonely souls who cling to each other and their secrets.
For The Defense, 1930
William Powell. Kay Francis. A shady lawyer has a crisis when his girlfriend kills a man in an auto accident, and her new boyfriend, whom Powell is jealous of, takes the responsibility for it but then he finds out the truth. It kept my interest.
Teresa, 1951
Pier Angeli. John Ericson. Italian war bride contends with a disturbed mama's boy who is controlled by an undermining, mother-in-law.
Suzy, 1936
Jean Harlow. Franchot Tone. Cary Grant. The adventures of a WW1 chorus girl who marries twice. Good movie.
Alive Inside
A remarkable documentary about the role of music and how a personal play list can profoundly affect the life of our elderly or sick population that suffer from dementia, MS, or another other host of disease that requires nursing care. The commentary afterwards by Writer-Director Michael Rossato-Bennett and the music was fabulous. One of the best movies that I have seen this year and which won the Audience Award at The Sundance Film Festival.
Magic in the Moonlight
"Set in the 1920s on the opulent Riviera in the south of France, Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight is a romantic comedy starring Colin Firth (The King's Speech) as Stanley Crawford, a master magician who tries to expose psychic medium Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) as a fake. Persuaded by his life-long friend (Simon McBurney), Stanley goes undercover on a mission to a Côte d'Azur mansion in order to debunk the alluring young clairvoyant, who is staying there with her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). From his very first meeting with Sophie, Stanley dismisses her as an insignificant pip-squeak who he can unmask in no time. To his great surprise and discomfort, however, Sophie accomplishes numerous feats of mind-reading and other supernatural deeds that defy all rational explanation, leaving him dumbfounded—and wondering whether Sophie's powers could actually be real." A delightful and entertaining verbal film with a terrific Colin Firth who plays a Rex Harrison kind-of-character from My Fair Lady, against an lovely Emma Stone who could have been played by pretty much anyone.
Allen is always great, and how he pumps out film after film, year-after-year, is pretty extraordinary.
Calvary
"I'm going to kill you, Father." In Calvary, an inventive mystery-drama with a pitch-black heart, Father James (Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges) is a good priest who is threatened in the confessional by a mysterious member of his parish. Although he continues to comfort his own fragile daughter Fiona (Kelly Reilly) and reach out to help members of his church with their various scurrilous moral—and often comic—problems, he feels sinister and troubling forces closing in, and begins to wonder if he will have the courage to face his own personal Calvary. Also starring Chris O'Dowd. From John Michael McDonagh, the acclaimed writer and director of The Guard. The intense and heavily dark film is hard to recommend. As a piece of film work, it is fine, written like a short story. Every one of the Priest's parishioners harbors a dark secret and an even darker, more evil heart. No one, under the persona, is a person of good character, decency or honor or integrity. To know so many of their secrets must make life hard and base. There was no redemption even at the end of the film.
Are You Here, 2013
Film Class. Owen Wilson. Zach Galifianakis. This is one of the worse films that I have ever seen. I hate films about narcissistic boy/men, infantile and immature and selfish liars and lacking all integrity and utter losers. I feel tortured and dirty afterwards.
There's Always Tomorrow, 1956
Fred MacMurray. Barbara Stanwyck. A toy-company executive who is neglected and taken advantage of at home by his wife and three children and through business hooks up in a surprising reunion with a sympathetic old flame and sparks begin to fly! She has integrity and is not chasing him at all and ultimately brings him back to his family. I fell asleep.
Labor Day, 2013
Director: Jason Reitman. Kate Winslet. Josh Brolin. Romance between a lonely, depressed divorcee and a convict who escapes prison. This convict is a little bit too good. Kind and the perfect handyman who wishes no harm. Makes a great peach pie, can repair houses, romance, play ball with her boy, all in three days. It was interesting while watching but a bit too unbelievable.
Dr. Socrates, 1935
Paul Muni. Barton MacLane. A small town doctor is roped into taking care of gangsters when they become wounded.
He falls for a gal, after his fiancee died. She has hitchhiked, been picked up by this gangster moll and is accused of being his girlfriend when she is shot and taken to this doctor who proves his mettle and integrity. Enjoyable!
Love Is Strange
Director. Ira Sachs. John Lithgow. Alfred Molina. Two gay men, who have been together for thirty-nine years, decide to marry when it becomes legal and all the circumstances which follow from this decision. It is a truly tender, lyrical and lovely piece of film work. The classical musical score was marvelous. I found it touching and well-done, fine actually.
Conflict, 1945
Humphrey Bogart. Sydney Greenstreet. The psychologist thriller stars Bogart as a clever husband who hatches a plan to murder his wife so he can marry her sister. She has no interest in him and the police set a trap to catch him in his lie when they begin to suspect him. What was the one mistake? He describes her as having a flower in her lapel when that follow was given to her by the psychologist after she leaves her husband. Bogart would not have known about it unless he had seen her, which he would have, only had he murdered her, which he did. It was suspenseful and very good!
Night Nurse, 1931
Barbara Stanwyck. Clark Gable. A nurse in the care of some children discovers that the tykes are the targets of a murder plot and puts herself in danger to save them from their terrible fate.
Bordertown, 1935
Paul Muni. Bette Davis. An ambitious Mexican lawyer becomes the object of derision and class snobbery when he becomes a lawyer and fails at his new Profession. He ends up running a very successful gambling joint where women come on to him and try to compromise his integrity and use him for his money. The ending could have gone in several different directions. It was an OK film, nothing to particularly write home about.
After
Director: Pieter Gaspersz. Kathleen Quinlan. Screenwriter and Maxine Valentino, Sabrina Gennarino. (She is the wife of the Director and because she wrote it, this is the only reason that she was able to star in it as she is cross-eyed and far from pretty. In person, she lost around 20 pounds from the time the film was made.) Gaspersz did a superb job especially considering that this was his first film! The film takes place a year after 9/11. It is about dealing with loss and denial and family trauma. It is a remarkable film.
Hearts Of The World, 1918
Silent Film. Director: D.W. Griffith, Lillian Gish. John Harron. Dorothy Gish. Granted special permission film on the actual battlefields of France, this movie of World War 1 is powerful and considered one of the finest of this genre. It conveys the devastation visited upon collateral damage, the innocent population. "Marie must endure the German bombardment, is forced into slave labor and educe the atrocities of her brutal overlords and witness the death and carnage of all that she loves and holds dear." It is a superb movie and a miracle that it is has survived in the condition that it has.
Marty, 1955
Ernest Borgnine. Betsy Blair. Best Picture Winner of a slice-of-life about a shy, lonely Bronx, thirty-four-year-old-man butcher who sees a potential of a possible romance with a not pretty twenty-nine year-old-girl. This is one of my very favorite films, a Masterpiece, and I have seen it at least a half dozen times. I love the intimacy and the dialogue and the storyline and the heart of this film.
Mrs. Doubtfire, 1993
Robin Williams. Sally Field. This is one of the best of Robin William's movies. You see his comedic genius and talent, his timing and kindness. He is not gross or vulgar. You see the desperation of how far someone will go to be in daily contact with his children. I laugh out loud and feel profoundly touched by his longing. He made and defined the film. It was a Masterpiece.
The November Man
Pierce Brosnan. Full of violence and speed and high chase drama, it was utterly entertaining and gripping while watching and completely forgettable afterwards. I felt Brosnan was too old especially with the girl he was paired with.
Got booed down in the class when I said this! Funny!
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 1963
Sophia Loren. Marcell Mastroianni. Three short stories with all the same actors that present the idea of women using their sexuality to get what they want when they want it. It is very Italian style and scenery and exuberance and fun.
Loren is magnificent as a woman! And, her seduction dance at the end is boom boom! Best Foreign Picture.
Foreign Correspondent, 1940
Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Joel McCrew. Laraine Day. A tale of murder and intrigue, set on the even of WW2, in which a New York crime reporter is sent to London to cover political machinations overseas. While there, he makes some interesting contacts that put his life at risk and attempts for escape are dangerous as he relies that he is caught in the cross hairs to be murdered. Very suspenseful!
The Hitchhiker, 1953
Edmond O'Brian. Frank Lovejoy. Black and white. Two men are on a fishing trip when then pick-up a hitchhiker who immediately pulls a gun on them and is a known and dangerous killer on the loose as we, the audience, have witnessed. He is full of hatred and rage and they go across the desert with him as he tries to escape the police who are in pursuit. Very suspenseful!
Baggage Claim, 2013
A black film made for a black audience which went immediately into video. It received a one star rating but I enjoyed it for pure entertainment. The characters were decent and wealthy and successful and you liked them! It is about a desperate flight attendant who seeks Mr. Right because she is desperate to get engaged and married. She travels constantly to get a man and the one she does not realize is perfect for her is the one who is in the apartment across from her and her dear friend for over twenty years. At the end, they get together.
The One Hundred Foot Journey
"Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in a picturesque village in the south of France to open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin-starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all-out war between the two establishments—until Hassan's passion for French haute cuisine and for Mme. Mallory's enchanting sous chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between their two cultures. A stimulating story of triumph over exile and blossoming with passion and heart, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a portrayal of two worlds colliding and one boy's drive to find the comfort of home, in every pot, wherever he may be. Directed by Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen)." I was in the perfect mood for this film. It delivered like a fable. It wrapped up with a big bow around it at the end. Everything came together in perfect Hollywood style. Hassan is simply gorgeous!
The Trip To Italy
"Michael Winterbottom's largely improvised 2010 film The Trip took comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon—or semifictionalized versions thereof—on a restaurant tour around northern England. In this witty and incisive follow-up, Winterbottom reunites the pair for a new culinary road trip, retracing the steps of the Romantic poets' grand tour of Italy and indulging in some sparkling banter and impersonation-offs. Re-whetting our palates from the earlier film, the characters enjoy mouthwatering meals in gorgeous settings from Liguria to Capri while riffing on subjects as varied as Batman's vocal register, the artistic merits of "Jagged Little Pill," and, of course, the virtue of sequels. Winterbottom trains his camera to capture the idyllic Italian landscape and the gastronomic treasures being prepared and consumed while keeping the film centered on the crackling chemistry between the two leads. The Trip to Italy effortlessly melds the brilliant comic interplay between Coogan and Brydon into quieter moments of self-reflection, letting audiences into their insightful ruminations on the nuances of friendship and the juggling of family and career. The result is a biting portrait of modern-day masculinity." I found the first restaurant mouth-watering and divine food. The movie, through the Italian countryside showcasing gorgeous hotels, poetry and literature, and magnificent food was a sensual feast. Brydon became over-bearing and tedious and after a while, I wanted him to shut him. He also became a scoundrel as he cheated on his wife and there was not a woman in the theater who did not flinch at this. At the end, using a movie reference, he was told to honor duty but his nature will not. I liked the first Trip film when Coogan played the dominant force. Lucy
From LA FEMME NIKITA and THE PROFESSIONAL to THE FIFTH ELEMENT, writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Now, Besson directs Scarlett Johansson in LUCY, an action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic. The movie was detached as one could not have human emotions and pull the brain into full capacity. Either/Or. It was unduly violent, the Koreans were presented poorly, brutal and cold, and the entire film carried a coldness. LSD type drugs leaked into Lucy's body as she was being used as a mule and gave her superhuman powers. OK.
Baby Face, 1933
Barbara Stanwyck. George Brent. Provocative, in its day, of a woman who uses sex as power to advance herself out of poverty and into wealth, marriage and success. I have seen it many times and am stunned by how relevant and classic it remains.
Canopy
"Singapore, February 9, 1942. The Japanese invasion is underway. Jim (Khan Chittenden), an Australian fighter pilot, wakes up dangling from a tree by his parachute strings somewhere in the middle of a vast jungle overrun by hostile forces. As night falls, he forges into the danger he must navigate in search of sanctuary when he encounters a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter, Seng (Mo Tzu-Yi). Injured and frightened, he also seeks to survive their tenuous surroundings and common enemy. The men realize that their only hope of persevering lies with each other as their journey begins the exploration of the collision of war and nature and its impact on humanity." The movie was unique in its unfolding and development. Slow. Confusing. Deliberate pace, as you became the characters as they perceived their hostile, enemy environment. For me, when it ended, I was ready.
I had no interest in hearing what the Director had to say. I could not believe how they survived without food. War film.
Thoroughly Modern Millie, 1967
Julie Andrews. Mary Tyler Moore. Two small town girls remake themselves into modern girls in the roaring 20's when they come to the big city in search of finding and landing a rich husband. I only saw half. Cute. Bored.
Harry and Me
"Henry & Me tells the courageous story of Jack (voice of Austin Williams), a brave young boy who is dealt a life-changing blow. Low on confidence and filled with self-doubt, hope seems lost until a mysterious stranger named Henry (Richard Gere) appears. With the touch of his pin, Henry sweeps Jack away to a magical world where illness no longer exists and New York Yankee legends play forever. The incredible journey brings Jack face to face with Babe Ruth (Chazz Palminteri), Thurman Munson (Paul Simon), Lefty Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Mickey Mantle (David Mantle)—who all teach Jack to face his fears and never give up. The movie climaxes at Yankee stadium, where Jack must test his newfound courage to save the season and find his way home. Featuring an all-star cast of unforgettable characters, Henry & Me is a heartwarming animated movie experience for the entire family with a message of hope: when life throws a curve... swing away! Official Web Site" I was the only one in the entire theater. A forgettable film. One cliche after the next. The entire dialogue was clique. One hour and six minutes long. It was an entire baseball metaphor. I don't particularly care for baseball. I thought it would be about illness and that I could relate to it but it was not because of the animation but because of the baseball!
My Old Lady
"Filmed on location in a ravishing Paris of quiet back streets and familiar locales, My Old Lady is a touching romantic drama about inheritance and past secrets coming home to roost. Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline) is a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment from his estranged father. But when he arrives in France to sell the vast domicile, he's shocked to discover a live-in tenant. His apartment is a viager—an ancient French real estate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale—and the feisty English woman Mathilde Girard (Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"), who has lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas) for many years, is not prepared to budge. With no place to go, Mathias strikes a tentative lodging arrangement with Mathilde, instantly clashing with suspicious, lovelorn Chloé over his private dealings with a rapacious property developer. With its unique blend of comedy, drama and ultimately romance, My Old Lady marks the directorial debut of internationally celebrated playwright Israel Horovitz, adapting his own hit play." The movie was tedious and boring and slow moving and I would have walked out had I not been. I hate plays that are made into film and retain that quality. The actors are superb but it was written not by a screenwriter but by the play writer. It did not work and will be a flop.
Coal Miner's Daughter, 1980
Sissy Spacek. Tommy Lee Jones. Now this movie has stood the test of time. It is fabulous and so well done and authentic. Our two lead actors went through a great deal and survive and along and turbulent marriage. Spacek did all of her own singing. She was on Oscar for this portrayal of country music star Loretta Lynn. It tells the story of her Kentucky coal miner background and how she went from honkey-tonk joints to her triumph of the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Fabulous movie.
The Green Prince
Set against the chaotic backdrop of recent events in the Middle East, filmmaker Nadav Schirman's The Green Prince retraces the details of a highly unprecedented partnership that developed between sworn enemies. In the style of a tense psychological thriller, this extraordinary documentary recounts the true story of the son of a Hamas leader who emerged as one of Israel's prized informants, and the Shin Bet agent who risked his career to protect him. Based on Mosab Hassan Yousef's bestselling memoir Son of Hamas, The Green Prince exposes a complex world of terror, betrayal, and impossible choices. Through exclusive first-hand testimony, dramatic action sequences, and rare archival footage, decades of secrets come to light in this unflinching exploration of a profound spiritual transformation and the transcendent bonds of friendship. Winner of the Sundance Audience Award for Best Documentary (World Cinema). Official Web Site
Dear Friends,
The Green Prince, which won, the Sundance Audience Award for Best Documentary, is one of the finest I have seen. It opened this Friday at the Landmark at Westwood and Pico in one of their smallest theaters. I do not know how long it is scheduled. But, DO NOT MISS IT. I found it the most compelling, intense, riveting and suspenseful film that I have seen in a long, long time. Never did I look at my watch or think of the time. Not even once. At one time, I found myself holding my breath! Yousef's book Son of Hamas, came out in 2010 which I read. But the film is able to bring the book alive in a way that only film can do - to make it three dimensional - to reenact it. It is a Must See. A not-to-be-missed. Yousef and his Israeli handler lives were changed. Transformed. You understand the depth of what goes on behind the scenes. Terrifying and Real. We Americans live incredibly soft and cushioned lives. To me, Yousef is a courageous and remarkable hero. A one-in-a-million.
I'm No Angel, 1933
Mae West. Cary Grant. West plays an 'adventurers" gal, a prostitute, who tangles with all kinds of men until she gets a millionaire whom she secretly loves and does so by brandishing a million-dollar breach-of--contract law suit. West plays a tough talking gal, surrounded by two black maids. She struts around giving wisecracks. This film was made before censorship when innuendoes were obvious and tiered. Cute film!
Caged, 1950
Eleanor Parker. Hope Emerson. Contact with criminals in a prison transforms this innocent, kind and young woman into an embittered, hardened hard core criminal and convict where she fights to survive among murderers, thieves and whores, brutal inmates who do not have her back. Parkers was nominated for Best Actress in this role and she is truly outstanding. The movie kept my interest but did not have a Hollywood ending.
Skeleton Twins
"In the hilarious and emotional The Skeleton Twins, twins Maggie (Kristen Wiig,Bridesmaids) and Milo (Bill Hader, "Saturday Night Live") lead separate lives on opposite sides of the country. After many years of estrangement, both feel that they're at the end of their ropes, and an unexpected reunion forces them to confront how their lives went so wrong. For Maggie, that means re-examining her marriage to sweet "nature frat boy" Lance (Luke Wilson) and her own self-destructive tendencies, while Milo must face the pain of an early heartbreak he never quite got past. As the twins' reunion reinvigorates them both, they realize the key to fixing their lives just may lie in accepting the past and mending their relationship with each other." I was not crazy about this movie - these actors come across to me as such losers. Damaged beyond, filled with cliques, I thought it portrayed American culture at its worse. Why do I want to hang out with these people for two hours?
Wild Orchids, 1929
Great Garbo. Lewis Stone. Silent film. A neglected wife is chased down by this Java Prince while accompanying her husband to Java who seems oblivious by the deceit of his male companion toward his wife. He is an older man and this younger man is dashing. It was a wonderful film - the dialogue as relevant today as it was seventy years ago. Garbo has the most beautiful hands.
Your Cheatin' Heart 1964
George Hamilton. Susan Olivier. Biography of legendary country western singer, Hank Williams Sr. This film charts his short life (died at age 29) through his guitar-strumming boyhood, and his meteoric rise to fame with the hit title song, his appearances at the Grand Old Opry and his battles with the bottle. The predicable life of fame and fortune and drink, however, this film was fabulous. I loved it.
Tracks
"Director John Curran (THE PAINTED VEIL, WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE) and the producers of THE KINGS SPEECH bring you the film TRACKS, which tells the remarkable true story of Robyn Davidson (Wasikowska), a young woman who leaves her life in the city to make a solo trek through almost 2,000 miles of sprawling Australian desert. Accompanied by only her dog and four unpredictable camels, she sets off on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Along the way, she meets National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan (Driver) who begins to photograph her voyage."
This marvelous film is a must see. It is a take off on a Hollywood version of Wild. But, it has been released before Wild. Her brave journey is a remarkable story because nothing really did happen. She found her camels. She found her compass. Because of her photographer Jewish friend, whom she sneered and dismissed, he ended up saving her life by planting water for her, by keeping in touch with her, by over-seeing her safety, by stemming off the journalists. Without his protection, she would have perished. I was surprised she was not raped and left to die. I loved this film. I was amazed by how much Wasikowska resembled Davidson. Must see.
The Single Standard, 1929
Greta Garbo. Nils Asther. Debutante turned wife and mother is tempted to return to old boyfriend, whom she created a scandal with when she went on a boat trip with him for several weeks, unmarried. He returns and she is torn about returning to him and forsaking her husband, who wants to kill himself, and her young son. Garbo is always magnificent in her style and acting and femininity and beauty, especially her graceful hands that she uses so eloquently. It is hard to believe that she was bi-sexual. I just adore her.
Two Faces of January
Screenwriter Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove, Drive) makes a stylish directing debut with this sleek thriller set in Greece and Istanbul, 1962, and adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel. Intrigue begins at the Parthenon when wealthy American tourists Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his young wife Collete (Kirsten Dunst) meet American expat Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a scammer working as a tour guide. Instead of becoming his latest marks, the two befriend him, but a murder at the couple's hotel puts all three on the run together and creates a precarious bond between them as the trio's allegiance is put to the test.
This suspenseful and terrific film left me gripped to my chair. Loved it. Dunst was terrific in her role and her style!
Possessed, 1931
Joan Crawford. Clark Gable. A small-town factory worker flees to Manhattan and becomes the mistress of a wealthy lawyer for over three years. But, her lawyer decides to run in the gubernatorial race this secret romance is exposed. I loved the dialogue.
Gone Girl
"The haunting thriller Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, Fight Club) and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn, unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife? Also starring Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry." The characters were cold, especially Amy, and this film is deeply cynical. Marriage. How we are played by the media. Perception. What is truth and what is not? How can one trust anyone? An excellent psychological thriller.
The Learning Tree, 1954
Kyle Johnson. Estelle Evans. Gordon Parks autobiographical boyhood story of his black experience growing up in the 1920's in Kansas. Parks produced, directed and wrote the musical score.
Min and Bill, 1930
Marie Dressler. Wallace Berry. Dressler won best Actress for an Oscar for her role as a crusty waterfront hotel owner who , with her boyfriend, a local fisherman, cares for a young orphan abandoned girl whom authorities threaten to take away because they do not feel Dressler is a fit mother. But when her biological tramp, mean mother appears, Dressler's protective and loyal devotion to this girl make her do things to protect her at all costs.
A marvelous film.
A Christmas Carol, 1936
Reginald Owen. Gene Lackhart. Faithful version of the Charles Dickens classic about miserly, Ebenezer Scrooge who, after being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve, learns the meaning of the true spirit of the holiday.
This is my very favorite interpretation of the film.
Tess, 1979
Nastassja Kinski. Leigh Lawson. Director: Roman Polanski. A peasant girl fate is sealed when her father casually hears that his ancestors are from aristocracy. They farm their daughter to the descendants of these where she is seduced and raped and is tossed around which eventually brings her to complete ruin. This 3 hour masterpiece has always remained one of my favorite films. Polanski dedicated it to his slain wife Sharon of the famous Tate murders. Thomas Hardy shows no mercy for his female characters.
Paris Texas, 1984
Wim Wenders. Harry Dean Stanton. Nastassja Kinski. Strange beautiful photographed film of a disposed and lost drifter who is forced to confront his past and makes havoc for his brother's life. I hated the film when I first saw it but when I saw it again, I saw what an extraordinary piece of film work it truly is. Lost, abandoned, sad lives of characters that come up against other and make each other's lives messy and cruel.
MatchmakerDirector: Avi Nesher. Taken from the book, Heroes Fly by Amir Gutfreund, this touching and moving intimate film of Israel around 1961 is comedic and poignant. It is a coming of age Israeli film. I found it layered and textured and nuanced. Light in parts and profoundly sad in others, it is a terrific and very fine film. It struggles with the damaged souls and wounded individuals from after the Holocaust who are trying to live in a new land.
The Guns of Navarone, 1961
Anthony Quinn. Gregory Peck. David Nivan. During WW2, a crack team of six commandos undertake a suicide mission to destroy two massive German guns that guard a strategic channel in the Aegean Sea and block Allied passage. This film is a remarkable piece of story telling, until war films today which are mostly special effects. I loved it. It is one of the best films I have seen.
Unbroken
Angelina Jolie directs an epic drama that follows the incredible life of an Olympian and war hero caught by the Japanese during WWII. This was one of my favorite books and I felt the adaptation was superb, the pace well done, and the sadistic torture almost to much to bear. It was a superb film.
The Gunfighter, 1950
Gregory Peck. Helen Westcott. This film is about an aging cowboy, whose speed and notoriety with a gun dooms him to a kill-or-be-killed life, sets out for a reunion with his estranged wife and the young eight year old son he has never met, but a trio of outlaws and a logan gunslinger await to mow him down. It is a marvelous psychological western unlike any I have ever seen. A very fine film.
THE HOMESMAN
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones), to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women (Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter) head east, where a waiting minister and his wife (Meryl Streep) have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat. This movie was so bad that I walked out after an hour. I was bored beyond description, Mary was far too PC and sweet to have endured what she did. The entire story and premise was preposterous. I kept falling asleep. I knew something was strange when I was the only person in the entire theater.
Talk Of The Town, 1942
Cary Grant. Jean Arthur. Best Picture nominee is a satire on legal ethics, involving a fugitive factory worker accused of arson and hiding in a school teacher's cottage where he encounters a college law professor who is being nominated for The Supreme Court and is in this town on vacation. It is cute and predicable and moralizing but interesting enough.
Laura, 1944
Gene Tierney. Dana Andres. A New York City detective investigates the slaying of a beloved ad executive and the more he learns about her from her enter, her fiancé, her diary, her maid and the haunting portrait in her apartment, the more he becomes under her spell too. It feels like a play and I actually fell asleep.
Chloe, 2009
Julianne Moore. Liam Neeson. Amanda Seyfried. In this erotically charged drama, Catherine suspects her husband David may be cheating on her, so she hires a prostitute names Cloe to flirt with him and report back to her about how he responds. The whole thing becomes out-of-control and she begins to stalk Catherine, invading her son and taking compromising pictures for blackmail. It starts to become quite creepy.
The Lady Vanishes, 1958
Margaret Lockwood. Michael Redgrave. Hitchcock film about an elderly English governess who disappears from a train, a fact that other passengers deny ever seeing. Except for the young lady she had befriended and is concerned as to how she disappeared, she would have died. It turns out that the elderly lady is not a governess at all but a spy working for the British. And, the people were in cahoots with the Nazis on the train.
Rawhide, 1951
Tyrone Power. Susan Hayward. Outlaws hole up in an out-of-the-way stagecoach stop while awaiting the arrival of a gold shipment. Meanwhile, the assistant station master plots a means of escape for himself and a few hostages. It is a truly gripping and psychological portrayal of tension and crime and hold ups. Very fine film for its genre.
Carnal Knowledge, 1971
Director: Mike Nichols. Jack Nickolson. Art Garfunkel. A chronicle of the sexual odysseys of two friends from their post WW2 college years at Amherst through the Vietnam era. It is all sex and brilliant dialogue of two sexual points of view from men. Jack ends up lonely and alone searching and seeking out prostitutes. And Art ends up the same, going with younger and younger women. I found it all demeaning and sad and in many ways, a precursor for relationships today. A classic of a film which has stood the test of time.
The Barkley's from Broadway, 1949
Fred Astaire. Ginger Rogers. Reunited after ten years, this team is about a self-absorbed show-business dance team and husband and wife whose easily bruised egos and constant need of saying how wonderful each other is, cannot take the strain of marriage and are really the bickering and battering Barkely's. The music in nondescript, and the dancing of Fred Astaire remains magical and transformative. The shoe dancing sequel comes from this movie.
Separate Tables, 1958
David Niven. Wendy Hille. a very young Deborah Karr. Burt Lancaster. Love affairs and secrets abound in this English seaside hotel/ resident home that is host to lonely people, including a tall-tale Major who has a scandal in his past. There is a young girl traveling with her domineering mother and of course Burt Lancaster who plays he simmering alcoholic who remains in love with his first wife. The movie acts like a play, is a bit dated but kept my interest.
Miss Julie
Still Alice
"Four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore gives a terrific, heartbreaking and unforgettable performance as Alice Howland, a renowned linguistics professor, happily married with three adult children. In the words of her husband John (Alec Baldwin), she's the most beautiful and most intelligent woman he's ever known. But Alice finds herself forgetting words—her stock in trade. Frightened, she consults her doctor, and receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Her loving family tries to support her, but finds their bonds thoroughly tested. Her children, Anna (Kate Bosworth), Tom (Hunter Parrish) and Lydia (Kristen Stewart) each meet the crisis in their own way. Lydia, an aspiring actress, has been at odds with her mother over her own future, and tries to mend the breach before it is too late. Alice's struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, poignant, and inspiring. Told with a quiet restraint that is more powerful than sentimental melodrama, Still Alice will touch your heart. Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, based on the novel by Lisa Genova." This was one of the finest films of this subject that I have seen. Profound and real.
Wild
In Wild, director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, The Young Victoria), Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and Academy Award nominated screenwriter Nick Hornby (An Education) bring bestselling author Cheryl Strayed’s extraordinary and inspirational adventure to the screen. After years of reckless behavior, a heroin addiction and the destruction of her marriage, Strayed (Witherspoon) makes a rash decision. Haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi (Academy Award nominee Laura Dern) and with absolutely no experience, she sets out to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail all on her own. Wild powerfully reveals her terrors and pleasures—as she forges ahead on a journey that maddens, strengthens and ultimately heals her. There was a tameness to the hike.
The movie lacked the poetry and the magnificent writing and introspection of the book. Just by inserting poetry does not mean the movie feels poetic. Witherspoon did a good enough job but she was ultimately miscast. Too small and petite. Jennifer Lawrence would have been perfect in size, in inhabiting the role, in breathing life into the character. I could never forget I was looking at Witherspoon.
Antartica
Although only a few scientists and researchers brave the extreme conditions of Antarctica year-round, the continent hosts a close-knit international population of base workers, chefs, technicians and tradespeople who keep everything running. Antarctica: A Year on Ice is their story. Completely isolated from the rest of the world, enduring months of unending darkness, Antarctic residents experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most severe environment on Earth. From everyday moments of work and laughter to holiday celebrations and even the filmmaker's own wedding, Antarctica: A Year on Ice shows a determined community thriving in a world most people will never know. Boasting footage gathered over 15 years, including nine winters spent in 24-hour darkness, this unique documentary speaks to the planet's natural wonders, humanity's thirst for adventure and the emotional journey that accompanies a year spent on the ice. Intrepid filmmaker/photographer Anthony Powell gives testament to both the spirit of Antarctic culture and the breathtaking splendor contained within the last pristine wilderness left on the planet. A very nice documentary. I went with Ariel. He was a lovely chattering companion. It was understandable to a six year old.
Although only a few scientists and researchers brave the extreme conditions of Antarctica year-round, the continent hosts a close-knit international population of base workers, chefs, technicians and tradespeople who keep everything running. Antarctica: A Year on Ice is their story. Completely isolated from the rest of the world, enduring months of unending darkness, Antarctic residents experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most severe environment on Earth. From everyday moments of work and laughter to holiday celebrations and even the filmmaker's own wedding, Antarctica: A Year on Ice shows a determined community thriving in a world most people will never know. Boasting footage gathered over 15 years, including nine winters spent in 24-hour darkness, this unique documentary speaks to the planet's natural wonders, humanity's thirst for adventure and the emotional journey that accompanies a year spent on the ice. Intrepid filmmaker/photographer Anthony Powell gives testament to both the spirit of Antarctic culture and the breathtaking splendor contained within the last pristine wilderness left on the planet. A very nice documentary. I went with Ariel. He was a lovely chattering companion. It was understandable to a six year old.
National Gallery
Frederick Wiseman’s NATIONAL GALLERY takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. NATIONAL GALLERY is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film.
This 3.5 documentary is quite remarkable in that it was highly informative and interesting and engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Fox Catcher
"Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move onto the du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the shadow of his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), also an Olympic Gold Medal winner. Driven by hidden needs, du Pont sees backing Mark's bid for Gold and the chance to "coach" a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Fueled by du Pont's increasing paranoia and alienation from the brothers, the trio is propelled towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen. Foxcatcher is a rich and moving story of brotherly love, misguided loyalty and the corruption and emotional bankruptcy that can accompany great power and wealth. Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball) once again explores large themes in society through his complex character portraits of real people. Winner of the Best Director award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival."
This tedious, slow moving, heavy movie I felt was oversold by critics. I actually could not stand it. It felt controlling and creepy.
The Imitation Game
"The Imitation Game is a dramatic portrayal of the life and work of one of Britain's most extraordinary unsung heroes, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Fifth Estate, Star Trek Into Darkness, TV’s "Sherlock"). Leading a motley crew of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, the loner mathematical genius was instrumental in cracking the code for Germany’s World War II Enigma Machine, a seemingly impossible code that changed daily, and in the process became a pioneer of modern-day computing. Keira Knightley co-stars as a supportive friend on the code-breaking team who tries (but fails) to help him lead a more normal social life. Intercut with the life-and-death struggle to break the code are scenes from Turing’s past, as an outcast at boarding school befriended by an older boy, and of the future and his disastrous encounter with the police in 1952, charged with the crime of homosexuality. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, The Imitation Game follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives. Also starring Charles Dance, Mark Strong and Matthew Goode. Directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters)."
Made For Each Other, 1939
Carole Lombard. James Stewart. A couple wed after a one-day courtship and face their first year of marriage with financial woes, illness, interfering in-laws and the arrival of a new baby. Dated and sweet and heart-warming.
The Fighting Sullivans, 1944
George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, Albert, Died in 1941. Five brothers from Iowa survive together throughout the Great Depression and later serve together in the Pacific theater in WW2, where their acts of bravery and courage become known.
Pride of the Marines, 1945
John Garfield. Eleanor Parker. The true story of Al Schmid, a true-life marine who served in WW2. Schmid became a hero at Guadaicanal, defending a machine gun post and killing 200 Japanese before being permanently blinded by a grenade. This movie could never be made today. The values and dialogue would appear corny. I cried because at the end Garfield's brilliant acting made me cry, by his vulnerability by realizing what ordinary young men did to save liberty and freedom, what they sacrificed. All these values are lost i our narcisstiic world.
Defiance, 2011 (Fifth time viewing)
Bielski Brothers.
Mildred Pierce, 1945
Joan Crawford. Ann Blyth.
An Oscar winner, Crawford plays a spurned housewife who struggles to take care of her two daughters, by running a restaurant and ultimately opening several up and becoming quite rich. But, a lovable playboy and her scheming social-climbing daughter nearly almost drives her mother to ruin.
The Hustler, 1960
Paul Newman. Jackie Gleason. George C. Scott. A Young pool shark comes up against the cruelty of life as he negotiates the billiards underworld with the help of a wily mentor and a troubled girlfriend. This gritty drama earned two Oscar wins and 9 nominations including one for Best Picture. A character study, terrific acting, an old time film without special effects. It could be on stage as easily as film.
Grace of Monaco, 2014
Nicole Kidman. Tim Roth. Two years in the life of Grace Kelly as the focus of this biopic, which examines the time period when the scarlet helped ease a tense situation between France and Monaco, she married into royalty 6 years prior.
Why do I keep seeing films with Kidman? She is the worst actress, cold as ice, not pretty, and cannot act! I hated this movie. Slow. Tedious. Completely made up. Is there any integrity anywhere anymore, except in the beautiful fast ions?
The Heat, 2013
Sandra Bullock. Melissa McCarthy. A by-the-book FBI agent partners with an abrasive and foul mouth speaking Boston cop to take down a powerful drug lord and corrupted police department. It is a buddy comedy and I actually found myself laughing out loud!
The Young Kieslowski
This movie is literally so forgettable that only seeing it a week ago, I cannot even remember it. It is another PC film about a 21 year-old-boy who falls for a fellow college student, hooks up and gets her pregnant and through this pregnancy, he ends up maturing. Or so, the Director wants you to think. The brave thing would have been for her to get an abortion and deal with the aftermath of this. I hate these boy/men movies where they are immature, silly, insipid and lack responsibility. A must NOT see. I felt so badly for this new born baby.
Jimmy's Hall
Director: Seventy-nine year old Ken Loach. It is the story of laborer Jimmy Graton, an Irish man in the early 1930's, who is a Communist and returns to farm in Ireland on the West coast, and is deported forever because the Priest and bullies feel that he is going to rebel rouse the locals once more. The actors were marvelous. It is a period piece, a fine piece of film work, with a pace that feels real and authentic and I felt was one of the few fine films that we saw in our Film Class at the Writer's Guild.
Ethan Fromme, late 1970's
From KCET, starring a very young and unknown actor named Liam Neilson, this extraordinary retelling of Edith Wharton's tragic and phenomenal short story is the best production that I have ever seen from her books. I had this made from a VHS tape. It is unavailable anyplace else and is one of the truly best.
PathFinder, late 1980's
This has been one of my favorite films of all times. It has a heart of a Jungian in its center. Nominated for Best Foreign Film from Norway, it tells the mythical story of a legend that has been passed down for 1000 years.
The symbolism and naturalism of nature interpretation bears an authenticity and mirror of life. I felt it as a Masterpiece and have seen it at least a dozen times.
The Apu Trilogy
1. Pather Panchali
2. Aparajito
3. The World of Apu
Director: Satyajit Ray. This trilogy has been considered the finest film of the 20th Century. And, it is. Poignant, it is a fabulous piece of storytelling of the life of Apu. How so much loss nearly tears him asunder and yet he rally's at the end, in spite of it all.
Frederick Wiseman’s NATIONAL GALLERY takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. NATIONAL GALLERY is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film.
This 3.5 documentary is quite remarkable in that it was highly informative and interesting and engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Fox Catcher
"Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move onto the du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the shadow of his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), also an Olympic Gold Medal winner. Driven by hidden needs, du Pont sees backing Mark's bid for Gold and the chance to "coach" a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Fueled by du Pont's increasing paranoia and alienation from the brothers, the trio is propelled towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen. Foxcatcher is a rich and moving story of brotherly love, misguided loyalty and the corruption and emotional bankruptcy that can accompany great power and wealth. Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball) once again explores large themes in society through his complex character portraits of real people. Winner of the Best Director award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival."
This tedious, slow moving, heavy movie I felt was oversold by critics. I actually could not stand it. It felt controlling and creepy.
The Imitation Game
"The Imitation Game is a dramatic portrayal of the life and work of one of Britain's most extraordinary unsung heroes, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Fifth Estate, Star Trek Into Darkness, TV’s "Sherlock"). Leading a motley crew of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, the loner mathematical genius was instrumental in cracking the code for Germany’s World War II Enigma Machine, a seemingly impossible code that changed daily, and in the process became a pioneer of modern-day computing. Keira Knightley co-stars as a supportive friend on the code-breaking team who tries (but fails) to help him lead a more normal social life. Intercut with the life-and-death struggle to break the code are scenes from Turing’s past, as an outcast at boarding school befriended by an older boy, and of the future and his disastrous encounter with the police in 1952, charged with the crime of homosexuality. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, The Imitation Game follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives. Also starring Charles Dance, Mark Strong and Matthew Goode. Directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters)."
Made For Each Other, 1939
Carole Lombard. James Stewart. A couple wed after a one-day courtship and face their first year of marriage with financial woes, illness, interfering in-laws and the arrival of a new baby. Dated and sweet and heart-warming.
The Fighting Sullivans, 1944
George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, Albert, Died in 1941. Five brothers from Iowa survive together throughout the Great Depression and later serve together in the Pacific theater in WW2, where their acts of bravery and courage become known.
Pride of the Marines, 1945
John Garfield. Eleanor Parker. The true story of Al Schmid, a true-life marine who served in WW2. Schmid became a hero at Guadaicanal, defending a machine gun post and killing 200 Japanese before being permanently blinded by a grenade. This movie could never be made today. The values and dialogue would appear corny. I cried because at the end Garfield's brilliant acting made me cry, by his vulnerability by realizing what ordinary young men did to save liberty and freedom, what they sacrificed. All these values are lost i our narcisstiic world.
Defiance, 2011 (Fifth time viewing)
Bielski Brothers.
Mildred Pierce, 1945
Joan Crawford. Ann Blyth.
An Oscar winner, Crawford plays a spurned housewife who struggles to take care of her two daughters, by running a restaurant and ultimately opening several up and becoming quite rich. But, a lovable playboy and her scheming social-climbing daughter nearly almost drives her mother to ruin.
The Theory of Everything
The Theory of Everything tells the extraordinary story of one of the world's greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde. Once a healthy, active young man, Hawking (Eddie Redmayne, Les Misérables, My Week With Marilyn) received an earth-shattering diagnosis at 21 years of age. With Jane (Felicity Jones, Like Crazy, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) fighting tirelessly by his side, Stephen embarks on his most ambitious scientific work, studying the very thing he now has precious little of—time. Together, they defy impossible odds, breaking new ground in medicine and science, and achieving more than they could ever have dreamed. The film is based on the memoir "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen," by Jane Hawking, and is directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire)
Whiplash (2)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the gripping drama Whiplash stars Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) as Andrew Neiman, a 19-year-old jazz drummer determined to rise to the top of the country's most elite music conservatory. One night, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a conductor equally known for his talent for teaching as he is for the terrifying method of his instruction, discovers Andrew practicing the drums, and the next day requests that he be transferred into his band. At first, Andrew is an "alternate," confined to turning the pages of the "core" drummer, but at the band's next competition, the core drummer's sheet music is misplaced and Andrew gets the opportunity to play. Though the act further alienates him from his fellow musicians, the band nonetheless wins the competition, and he seems poised to become Fletcher's new "favorite son." Andrew's maniacal effort to achieve perfection is further fueled by Fletcher's psychological brinksmanship. The nearer to perfection Andrew gets, the narrower his circle of intimates becomes until he is left only with Fletcher—and even that relationship is jeopardized by the ferocity of Andrew's ambitions. A journey that can be seen alternately as a descent into madness or an ascent to greatness comes to a crescendo on the biggest platform for Andrew's talents—the unforgiving stage of Carnegie Hall
Fury
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the gripping drama Whiplash stars Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) as Andrew Neiman, a 19-year-old jazz drummer determined to rise to the top of the country's most elite music conservatory. One night, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a conductor equally known for his talent for teaching as he is for the terrifying method of his instruction, discovers Andrew practicing the drums, and the next day requests that he be transferred into his band. At first, Andrew is an "alternate," confined to turning the pages of the "core" drummer, but at the band's next competition, the core drummer's sheet music is misplaced and Andrew gets the opportunity to play. Though the act further alienates him from his fellow musicians, the band nonetheless wins the competition, and he seems poised to become Fletcher's new "favorite son." Andrew's maniacal effort to achieve perfection is further fueled by Fletcher's psychological brinksmanship. The nearer to perfection Andrew gets, the narrower his circle of intimates becomes until he is left only with Fletcher—and even that relationship is jeopardized by the ferocity of Andrew's ambitions. A journey that can be seen alternately as a descent into madness or an ascent to greatness comes to a crescendo on the biggest platform for Andrew's talents—the unforgiving stage of Carnegie Hall
Fury
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre of World War II, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. Also starring Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaccs and Scott Eastwood, Fury is written and directed by David Ayer
The Hustler, 1960
Paul Newman. Jackie Gleason. George C. Scott. A Young pool shark comes up against the cruelty of life as he negotiates the billiards underworld with the help of a wily mentor and a troubled girlfriend. This gritty drama earned two Oscar wins and 9 nominations including one for Best Picture. A character study, terrific acting, an old time film without special effects. It could be on stage as easily as film.
Grace of Monaco, 2014
Nicole Kidman. Tim Roth. Two years in the life of Grace Kelly as the focus of this biopic, which examines the time period when the scarlet helped ease a tense situation between France and Monaco, she married into royalty 6 years prior.
Why do I keep seeing films with Kidman? She is the worst actress, cold as ice, not pretty, and cannot act! I hated this movie. Slow. Tedious. Completely made up. Is there any integrity anywhere anymore, except in the beautiful fast ions?
The Heat, 2013
Sandra Bullock. Melissa McCarthy. A by-the-book FBI agent partners with an abrasive and foul mouth speaking Boston cop to take down a powerful drug lord and corrupted police department. It is a buddy comedy and I actually found myself laughing out loud!
The Young Kieslowski
This movie is literally so forgettable that only seeing it a week ago, I cannot even remember it. It is another PC film about a 21 year-old-boy who falls for a fellow college student, hooks up and gets her pregnant and through this pregnancy, he ends up maturing. Or so, the Director wants you to think. The brave thing would have been for her to get an abortion and deal with the aftermath of this. I hate these boy/men movies where they are immature, silly, insipid and lack responsibility. A must NOT see. I felt so badly for this new born baby.
Jimmy's Hall
Director: Seventy-nine year old Ken Loach. It is the story of laborer Jimmy Graton, an Irish man in the early 1930's, who is a Communist and returns to farm in Ireland on the West coast, and is deported forever because the Priest and bullies feel that he is going to rebel rouse the locals once more. The actors were marvelous. It is a period piece, a fine piece of film work, with a pace that feels real and authentic and I felt was one of the few fine films that we saw in our Film Class at the Writer's Guild.
Ethan Fromme, late 1970's
From KCET, starring a very young and unknown actor named Liam Neilson, this extraordinary retelling of Edith Wharton's tragic and phenomenal short story is the best production that I have ever seen from her books. I had this made from a VHS tape. It is unavailable anyplace else and is one of the truly best.
PathFinder, late 1980's
This has been one of my favorite films of all times. It has a heart of a Jungian in its center. Nominated for Best Foreign Film from Norway, it tells the mythical story of a legend that has been passed down for 1000 years.
The symbolism and naturalism of nature interpretation bears an authenticity and mirror of life. I felt it as a Masterpiece and have seen it at least a dozen times.
The Apu Trilogy
1. Pather Panchali
2. Aparajito
3. The World of Apu
Director: Satyajit Ray. This trilogy has been considered the finest film of the 20th Century. And, it is. Poignant, it is a fabulous piece of storytelling of the life of Apu. How so much loss nearly tears him asunder and yet he rally's at the end, in spite of it all.
