One Chance meeting. Two Changed Lives.
Mrs. Palfrey, starring Joan Plowright, is an elegant, dignified and classy widow, who has come from Scotland to London to take up residency at the Claremont Hotel. Though she were optimistic for the cosmopolitan pleasures of living in a big city, such as attending lectures and concerts, as well as making a wider assortment of acquaintances, she is soon filled with a sense of uneasiness and slight gloom as she surveys her drab surroundings at the Claremont. The only bright spot in her decision to come to London is the fact that she will be closer to her only grandson, Desmond.
This is the storyline.
This movie has always been one of my favorites. It is one of the most sensitive delicate and lovely films I know. To me, it is what film is all about. To communicate depth of feeling and connection and universal Truths felt by all of us. Aging. Vulnerability. Loneliness. Neediness. Difficult relationships with children. Loss. Memory. Remaining courageous and engaged under trying circumstances. Keeping up courage. It is poignant and sweet.
Joan Plowright, who is recognized as one of England’s greatest actresses, plays Mrs. Palfrey. She earned the Title of Lady by the Queen and through her marriage to Lord Laurence Olivier, she became a Baroness. She was married to Olivier for almost thirty years until his death. They had three children. She played this role when she was 76 years old. She retired from acting in 2014.
And now the film. There are some things to pay attention to.
Listen carefully to the Voice Over’s that run throughout the film. They serve as a transition and Open the film. It gives the film gravitas and weight and provides the Observational eye. You realize that you are watching the process of a writer who is writing the story of his experience with Mrs. Palfrey.
Notice how Mrs. Palfrey observes change all around her.
A Muslim woman walking downs the street
The voice machine that shuts off before she is done speaking
Dressing down for dinner
The way her new friend dresses in torn and sloppy jeans.
An unlikely chance she would have ever been a friend with Ludwich, except for an accidental encounter with fate.
The city is fast and disorienting.
The last vestiges of her generation are fading.
Notice the difference in everyone’s accents that is how the English know what class you is from. Notice the value of the importance of manners in English society. And, how the British love their tea. It is the balm to their lives.
The pace of the film is even. It is not over-dramatic but takes place in realistic time. The story unfolds gently and easily.
There is another scene to pay attention to:
She and Ludavich Meyer are standing outside the Claremont.
“How do I thank you?” They start to converse.
“You give me ideas, he says. “A story is shaping up in my mind.”
At this point, the director points to the stature in back of Ludavich. The statue is standing there with her hand on her forehead, her brain, which reinforces the important of this conversation.
Things matter, Mrs. Palfrey says. And, points to her head and her heart. The head being memory. The stature represents memory.
Throughout the film there are an assortment of Charles Dickens characters, which appear like cameos and offer lightness and a distraction and entertainment from the weight and seriousness of the film, such as two actors that emerged directly from a Dickens’s novel.
There is one very quick scene in a video store where Ludvich is picking out a movie. He reaches for it and the movie next to it is one of my all time favorites! A Whole Wide World! I could not believe this, as I knew it was not accidental by the Director. Both are very similar films
And, last the dialogue! The writing is wonderful. It is rich and reflective and insightful and thoughtful. Pay close attention. You will not hear it in most films.
She came from a; world of sensible choices. Nothing in her life had prepared her for the loud confusion of her unexpected present.
There are people that cross our lives and minds and leave tiny indelible marks.
Lucky me to have tripping into your life.
Destiny may lead us to the path, but the rest is up to us.
The last sentence sums up the entire film. Pay attention.
The Space Between Us
A boring space film with Gary Oldman who overacts. The movie and storyline are as forgettable as writing this sentence.
The Red Turtle
France. "This haunting and magical tale, told wordlessly but eloquently, is a simple fable of a man shipwrecked on a tropical island, and his efforts to survive, wrestling with nature. The island is populated by birds and crabs, and is one day visited by a large sea turtle that seems to have mysterious intentions. Filled with convincing details of the natural world, and told with imagination and heart, The Red Turtle is a spectacularly beautiful film. Its gorgeous hand-drawn animation equals the best of any previous animation classic. Directed and co-written by Michael Dudok de Wit, Academy Award winner for the animated short “Father and Daughter,” The Red Turtle is presented by Studio Ghibli, makers of Spirited Away and The Wind Rises. Acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize, the film is a unique achievement, not to be missed. Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature." This is one of the most magnificent films I have seen. There is no dialogue and yet the animation and music and story and unveiling makes this film a religious experience. I loved it.
LaLaLand
"Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), La La Land tells the story of Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress who serves lattes to movie stars in a studio lot café between rushing out to unsuccessful auditions, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a dedicated jazz musician, reduced to tinkling out tunes in a cocktail lounge to earn a living. They meet cute and initially resist each other, but quickly fall in love. Both are romantics pursuing their dreams in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts. Los Angeles has never looked more beautiful than in this loving tribute to musicals, both classic Hollywood and those of Jacques Demy, miraculously revitalizing the genre. Composer Justin Hurwitz provides the lovely songs, with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. With John Legend, Finn Wittrock and J.K. Simmons. Dazzling and delightful, La La Land is nominated for 14 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Gosling), Actress (Stone), Cinematography and Original Score!" I am probably the only person that I know that is not LaLa over this film. It was forgettable when I left. I never sang a melody. The dancing and singing were poor. The chemistry between the two actors was fabulous. It was entertaining but fluff and forgettable.
Hidden Figures
American. "Hidden Figures is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big." Even though there was much fictional license taken with this film, I thought it excellent. It was exactly how my life in Evansville was with segregation. But, black families were intact and fathers present. I thought it did a fine job of depicting life in America in this time period for blacks.
Alone in Berlin
Germany. This movie closely follows the masterpiece of the book that came out from Germany after the war. It was a hard movie to see but extremely well done and sad.
Land of Mine
Denmark. "Based on true events, this morally complex movie is about a group of your German POW's who must remove the still-alive landlines that their troops left behind on Danish beaches, and of the conflicted Danish officer in charge of the unit." Director: Martin Pieter Zandvliet. The Officer in charge was created by the Director. Maybe he was not as cruel and mean as he was portrayed? This is entirely speculation to manipulate the audience. I did not feel that this film was morally complex. I felt it was simply being politically correct. It is revising history nearly 80 years later. This order took place in May 1945, right after the war. The Director even compared it to Trump's Muslim Ban order! Hitler was responsible for nearly 100 million deaths world wide. I thought it was a pretty excellent idea to use German's to remove the landlines that they had buried thinking the ally invasion was going to take place on this shoreline. Would they have preferred to have used their own people? What is wrong with this Director's thinking and naive!?
Layla M.
Dutch. "This film follows a foreigner teenage girl living in Amsterdam, who becomes disillusioned by daily encounters with racism and turns to Islam. Her relationship with a jihadist completes her radicalization." Again. This film is swimming in political correctness. It isn't racism that turns her into an ISIS follower. It is that she is extremely angry and rebellious and is looking for an outlet to express her sexual frustration. She falls in love with a jihadist and she becomes soft and malleable and in love. I felt her father was an outstanding character. Parental. Wise. Direct. And doing his job trying to save his daughter from herself and behavior. Her family is decent and loving and is forced to turn her in for her back choices and decision. Go family. I did not like her at all. We saw the movie in a theater that was old and filthy. When I complained to the management about the filthy bathrooms, that they were repulsive, they told me that they could not get any help to clean them. Really?
The Beautiful Fantastic
UK. "An English Amelie, this whimsical modern fairytale spins a sweet bright-hued yarn about Bella Brown, an OCD librarian with a dreadful few of flora, who almost accidentally cultivates a support group of amiable eccentrics, and one cantankerous neighbor, and discovers her own true voice." It is a lovely fable. I loved how he used the geese to move the chapters along, as a symbol of love and connection. It stars Sybil of Downton Abbey.
A Flickering Truth
"After defying the Taliban to preserve Afghanistan's film archives through subterfuge, local cinephiles must now race to restore and catalog material that has been neglected for years. tracts illuminate the country's troubled history and reveal aspects of the culture you would never imagine."
This film was so badly edited and made that we walked out. I fell asleep actually and then we walked out.
Obit
USA. "A fascinating behind-the-scenes portrait of the New York Times obituary writers, the team that brings us death every day in 500 - 1000 words. Contrary to what you might expect, this is quirky, touching, surpassingly fun and ultimately life-affirming. Director Vanessa Gould." I loved this film and felt it was the second best film for me that I saw at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The writers are highly educated and articulate. They are writing about a life, not a death. They try to find the original and unique thread in the person's life. They take their work seriously and responsibly. The head of the Morgue, or what they call the place to keep the Obits, was managed by one of the most colorful and funny and original personalities that I have ever encountered. He came out of a Charles Dickens novel. Even Dickens could not have created him, himself! I wanted this film to go on and on and on. Just loved it!
The Salesman
Iran. When is his wife is attacked and raped, by an interloper in their new apartment, Emad sets out to find her assailant, intent on revenge. In the masterly hands of Ashgar Fahardi, of A Separation fame, this surprising thriller becomes an astute examination of marriage, class, and crime and relationships in contemporary Iran. It won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival. I thought the film was wonderful. Intimate and fine. I know that I missed the cultural nuances and fine details that were implied in the language and only other Iranians could understand. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful film. I love his body of work.
Ethel & Ernest
UK 2016. Director: Roger Mainwood. Voices: Brenda Blethyn. Jim Broadbent. Luke Treadaway.
"An entertaining and heartwarming story about two ordinary people who fall in love in extraordinary times, this poignant animated feature profiles a hilarious and touching tribute to author Raymond Briggs parents, and illustrates the immense social change that swept over the UK during the 20th Century." I thought that this was the finest film of the Palm Spring International Film Festival. It was exquisite. My husband, who rarely, if ever cries, ended up weeping. As, did I behind my eyes. How grateful this simple couple was for every thing they achieved, for everything they bought, for everything they had. They had a small life but to them a grand one. It is a simple tale and it is the simplicity that knocks this animated film, into one of the finest films that I have seen. I loved it.
Barakah Meets Barakah
Saudi Arabia "In Saudi Arabia, meeting the opposite sex in public without a chaperone is prohibited. Which makes this smart, charming romantic comedy about the Kingdom's millennial generation such a sweet surprise. Tradition bums up against smartphones and social networking." The movie was interesting because of viewing a culture that is vastly different than our own. However, for a film, it was poor and full of the stereotype.
A Billion Colour Story
India "A liberal middle-class irreligious mixed Muslim-Hindu family gets a rude awakening when they move into a poorer part of Mumbai and encounter religious fundamentalism for the first time. Shot in black and white and told through the idealistic eyes of the family's smart 11 year-old-son, this first time director creates a wonderful movie." Director: N. Padmakumar. The movie was absorbing and well done. Its tragic ending was not expected. Corruption and radical tensions and hatred were intimately exposed in everyday life making the film believable and ultimately profoundly sad.
Gun Runners
Canada. "Kenya's Rift Valley produces many of the world's top marathon runners. It's also a place of gun-toting cattle rustlers. In this documentary, Julius Arile and Robert Matanda trade their AK-47's for running shoes and a dream for a better life." The runner abandons his wives and children. Ultimately, he wins the race and the $25,000. prize money which allows him to buy a farm and milking cows. So his decade of abandonment is forgiven. I found this story a clique and boring and predictable and could have written it myself. I felt controlled sitting there in the audience and was relieved when it finally ended.
Goldstone
Australia. "A missing inquiry beings indigenous detective Jay Swan to a frontier town. What seems like a simple investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. This is the follow up film to Mystery Road, another stylish and political neo-noir. Director: Ivan Sen." A forgettable film but while I was watching it, it was utterly absorbing and entertaining. I tend to love every Australian film I see. They are wonderful and natural film makers. This involves a broken, almost-giving-up-on-life, non-verbal, but a heart-of-gold detective, a sex trade operation, a naive but decent, slowly-bought-off, young and trusting police officer, and an ending where the bad guys vanish and the good guys continue to live to do good for another day!
I Am Not Your Negro
I HATED IT! I would have walked out but I was fearful that I would have been perceived as a racist. It was boring and tedious with a complete revisionist history. Through dialogue and visuals, it was black revisionist history, an insult to memory, textbook made for liberal whitey to beat his breast and feel guilty and do his mea cupla to how awful he treated the black man and woman. Who makes these movies? What a political agenda! They white washed James Baldwin. His hero was Malcolm X. Baldwin revered The Muslim Brotherhood. He was a genuine anti-Semite. I remember Baldwin from the day. In fact, I remember all of this history, as it is my own. They twisted it, drew conclusions from speculation not fact, manipulated and purposely took things out of context and the time period. They made transitions that did not make sense to me at all. They made heroes out of people I detest- just because they were black. Not because they had bad character or values.
The Story of Winfred Israel
I actually thought this film was awful. It was a journey of his search trying to learn about this very secretive and private man. Even his biographer knew very little about him. I felt the documentary misrepresented itself. There was no information about his young life, his family, his parents, the business. What motivated him to save Jewish lives? Why is it that with all the abundant and overwhelming information we have regarding the Kinder transport, we have never even heard of him, in anything? In this movie, he was the key as to why it happened in the first place!
What was it like growing up with the name Israel in Europe? And, what went behind putting this name, the family name, on the business? What was it like for him growing up in anti-Semitic Europe? Remember it was around the scandal of the Dreyfus case. I thought the film took so many detours that were utterly unnecessary and boring. I know no more about him now than when I went in. I would have loved to learn about him as a person. However, I felt the director used his homosexuality as an outing, and then speculated by using it as the reason as to why he was so adept at being secretive. Maybe this had nothing to do with it at all.
What was the grandfather all about? He had nothing to do with Israel, but he was put into the documentary. The entire film I felt needed editing and restructuring and there simply was not enough information about him that warranted it. He disappeared into history and maybe Israel simply wanted it this way. So his private details, like his homosexuality, were not revealed. I found this a travesty. It was disrespectful for the dead who can no longer defend themselves. Is no one allowed the respect of a private life anymore?
A United Kingdom
"A United Kingdom is the true story of the forbidden love of King Seretse Khama of Botswana (David Oyelowo, Selma) and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl), a white woman from London, which caused an international uproar when they decided to marry in the late 1940s just as apartheid was being introduced into South Africa. It was a decision that altered the course of African history. Directed by Amma Asante (Belle) and written by Guy Hibbert (Eye in the Sky), A United Kingdom also stars Jack Davenport, Laura Carmichael, Terry Pheto, Jessica Oyelowo, Arnold Oceng and Anastasia Hille." This is another movie that I hated. All one had to do was put in Palestinian for the name of this country. They loosely threw out the terms of colonialism which they knew the audience had no idea what it was. The British became the big bad giant. And democracy was defined as a democratically elected 4 generation king. It was such a hodgepodge of ridiculous terminology. They tried to make this King noble but in the photographs that followed the screening, he looked like another scheming political operator, along with his grasping power hungry wife. This movie is a travesty.
Oscar Animated Shorts
Don't miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Animated Short and more! Nominees includes: “Borrowed Time” (USA), in which a weathered sheriff returns to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget; “Pearl” (USA), in which a girl and her dad crisscross the country inside their home—a beloved hatchback—chasing their dreams; Pixar Animation Studios’ “Piper” (USA), the story of a hungry sandpiper hatchling who ventures from her nest for the first time to dig for food by the shoreline; “Blind Vaysha” (Canada), about Vaysha, a girl unlike other young girls, who was born with one eye that sees only the past and one eye which sees only the future; and “Pear Cider and Cigarettes” (Canada/UK), about Techno Stypes, a fighting, drinking, smoking shadow of his former self, who must stop drinking long enough to receive a liver transplant and get back home from China to Vancouver. (Note: “Pear Cider and Cigarettes” contains mature content and will be shown last, so that parents and caregivers can usher children out of the theater if desired. Other shorts in the program are acceptable for kids of all ages.) I pick Piper. The birds were so cute and I loved the message of the film. Finding a solution out of a problem. I hated the lat one about Techno Stypes. Who cares so much about a loser? Pearl felt like the life of Pearl. Blind Vaysha was a brilliant concept but did not work in animation. Would have been a wonderful story in a film. Rooting for Piper.
Kedi
This film is about several street cats that live in Istanbul and how loved and taken care of they are. They did not look like your skittish, scared, scrawny unloved cats of other Middle astern countries but these cats in Istanbul were loved indeed. It got boring after a while. The cat lovers all seemed to be a part of the poor sections of Istanbul, with one wealthy restaurant thrown in, with the people who took care of them claiming that the cats saved their lives. Would I recommend it. It was interesting to see Istanbul and made me want to return.
Best Live Action Shorts
"Don't miss this rare opportunity to see all five Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Live Action Short! Program includes: “Sing” (Hungary), in which the choir director at Zsofi’s new school may not be the inspirational teacher everyone thinks she is, and it will take Zsofi and her new friend Liza to uncover the cruel truth; “Silent Nights” (Denmark), in which Inger, who volunteers at a homeless shelter and falls in love with illegal immigrant Kwame, is happy for a while… until the day when Kwame’s mobile phone reveals everything about his life in Ghana; “Timecode” (Spain), in which Luna and Diego are parking lot security guards—Diego doing the night shift, and Luna working by day; “Ennemis Interieurs” (France), in which an interview at a local police station turns into an inquisition during which a French-Algerian born man sees himself accused of protecting the identities of possible terrorists; and “La Femme et le TGV” (Switzerland) starring César Award nominee Jane Birkin as Elise Lafontaine, who has been waving at the express train that passes her house every morning and evening for many years. She finds a letter from the train conductor in her garden and her lonely life is turned upside down." Sing was my favorite. Timecode, my second favorite. However, I feel that Silent Night will win because it is so damn politically correct that it made me want to throw up.
The Sense of an Ending
An awful movie with nothing redeeming about it.
The Ottoman Lieutenant
This has to be one of the most politically correct and stupid films that I have ever seen.
Pan's Labyrinth
The large toad inside the tree has a pulsating bright brilliant yellow, covered with bugs, and through the gunk, she pulls out the golden key.
Not Without My Daughter, 1990
A true story that felt real and true. What a phenomenal film. They just do not make them like this anymore.
Wilson
Woody Harrelson stars as Wilson, a lonely, neurotic and hilariously honest middle-aged misanthrope who reunites with his estranged wife (Laura Dern) and gets a shot at happiness when he learns he has a teenage daughter (Isabella Amara) he has never met. In his uniquely outrageous and slightly twisted way, he sets out to connect with her. Written by Daniel Clowes (Ghost World, Art School Confidential), based on his graphic novel. Wilson also stars Judy Greer and Cheryl Hines and is directed by Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins). This is the worst film I have ever seen. I felt dirty afterwards and had to take a shower. It was awful.
How Green Was My Valley
This is a classic from 1945 and one of my all time favorites. A real heart film.
Going In Style
Morgan Freeman. Michael Caine. Alan Arkin. Ann-Margaret. A cute scaper of three very old men who need money and rob a bank, and with today's morality, do not get caught and get away with it. Cute. Entertaining. Escaping. I felt they, however, were way too old. Sixty year olds would have been better, not nearly Eighties!
This is a classic from 1945 and one of my all time favorites. A real heart film.
Going In Style
Morgan Freeman. Michael Caine. Alan Arkin. Ann-Margaret. A cute scaper of three very old men who need money and rob a bank, and with today's morality, do not get caught and get away with it. Cute. Entertaining. Escaping. I felt they, however, were way too old. Sixty year olds would have been better, not nearly Eighties!
Gifted
To everyone else, she's gifted. To him, she's a gift. Frank Adler (Chris Evans, Captain America) is a single man raising a child prodigy—his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace)—in a coastal town in Florida. Frank's plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when the seven-year-old’s mathematical abilities come to the attention of Frank’s formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Frank and Mary. Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures, The Help) stars as Roberta, Frank and Mary’s landlady and best friend. Jenny Slate is Mary’s teacher, Bonnie, a young woman whose concern for her student develops into a connection with her uncle as well. Directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer). I thought that this was a wonderful film. I enjoyed it thoroughly. McKenna Grace is a wonderful actress for so young. Torment, 1944
Aif Kjellin. Mai Zettering. Ingrid Bergman's early film, black and white, of a study of a German high-school, with all of its cultural norms and rules and society, and one of its students who has an affair with a poor girl, but who is also having an affair with this students teacher. This teacher is mean and sadistic and cruel and ends up murdering the girl. It is how the high school student is able to liberate himself from the mess he made of his life and to move on at the end. Absorbing film. Intense and dramatic.
Rachel, Rachel,
Paul Newman's film that stars his wife, Joanne Woodward and their daughter Nell (Elinor) Potts. She is a lonely 35-year old woman who is desperate to live life and experience sex and live before she dies. But the ending I found peculiar. Why she would take her guilt carrier, demanding, critical mother with her to escape the town is beyond me. Her mother will be even more dependent upon her! She needed to find her own freedom. So the ending did not make sense to me at all - to take her mother away from her bridge friends and town.
Frantz (Saw Twice)
German. An absolutely marvelous film that takes place after the war in Germany, 1919. A young man comes to find the grave of what we are led to believe, a friend. He is French. The friend is German. How surprised we are when the film keeps going in a totally different direction than we expect. Homosexual? Not? Murderer of him? Not? The Director is always one step ahead of his audience and no one can anticipate the outcome at all. I thought it was phenomenal but not for everyone. I also loved how used color as a means to communicate the present and life and desire.
Music of Strangers, 2015
Yo-Yo Ma up-lfiting documentary which profiles the best musicians he discovered along his Silk Road tour. I found their lives interesting and sad and meaningful and the music, by Ma, divine. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Effect of Gamma Rays/Marigolds. 1972
Paul Newman's film using his family as the actors. Woodward plays a crazy, lonely eccentric woman raising two teen-age daughters who are embarrassed and ashamed by her. It is from Paul Zindel's Pulitzer Prize wining play about this widow. Wonderful character building movie. I Loved it.
A Woman's Balcony
Israeli film. I feel that I missed much of the transliteration and humor. It felt stereotypical and boring and innocent and it revealed the men as I hate them in that community. It had a nice message. Rabbi's and fanatics will do anything, lie, cheat and steal and be mean and manipulative to justify the ends. Maayan loved the movie and could understand all of the Hebrew.
Not happening. :-)
I hated this film - as I wrote below. To have to sit through it again, I would be squirming in my seat. The Director tried to create a light comedy feeling but to me this is no laughing matter.
It tried to show women’s empowerment but this was a joke. Nothing has changed and nothing will change. No one realizes or even takes seriously, the depth of contempt women are subjected to in this community,
The power given to men at the expense of all else is frightful. Weak, ineffectual, powerless, sexless, nasty, mean, vindictive men get their sense of power from dominating and keeping women in their place. In this film, women are thrown crumbs and are expected to feel exalted. This is sick. This community, which I know all too well, has an underbelly attached to it that is dark and darker and even darkest.
I did not find this “comedy” as it is being advertised, cute, adorable, light, empowering. I found it just its opposite. I found it profoundly sad. I felt beaten down by the enormity of its underbelly current.
I just returned from a 10 day trip to Israel. On the front page in Israel the Bet Din finally allowed a women to get divorced from her husband. Though he repeatedly raped her and beat her up to an inch of her life a couple of times, she had to give up this accusation in court, so he would not have to go to jail or suffer any penalties, in order for the Rabbi’s to grant her a Ghett. Really?
I did see a marvelous Jewish film that is now playing at the Royal called 1945. It is Hungary’s Foreign Best Film entry for the Oscars. Not to be missed.
I so enjoy the film class but not this film. No way in hell.
I know this movie is very popular on the Independent circuit route and among most people who have seen it. I have heard it described as charming and quaint! These people obviously know nothing about these communities and are seeing the movie at face value. I have done several photographic projects in Israel documenting these communities and know far more of its underbelly than I ever care to. It is not a pretty picture. I have to be among the very tiny minority who actually hated this movie! Please do not take offense! But, I found the movie labored and tedious and over-dramatized and small. To me, it tried to create a comedy out of a horrific lifestyle. It tried too hard to make a point which I found offensive to begin with. This movie brought out inside of me all the issues and problems that I have with the ultra-Orthodox communities. It became almost painful to watch. The Desperate, soul-crushing women living in a misogynist, patriarchal culture and future, profoundly subjugated and marginalized. Men making up the laws and controlling all aspects of their lives. It became stifling and utterly repressive. Women have to bury any original thought and feeling in order to survive. Women have to convince themselves how wonderful this world is without any personal understanding the price it demands from them. How would you like to be a woman in this world? I don’t think so! How would you like your daughters to be a part of this world? I don’t think so! These women small success became a horror show to me. Try getting a divorce if you are a woman in Israel at the Bet Din. Men are automatically given the sole custody of children with the mothers getting only visitation rights. In some of these communities, men can remarry without the Gett. Women cannot. Gett is a far more powerful and realistic film for this reason.And, at the end of the day, at the end of this film, the tragedy is that nothing really changed. No matter how they ended it. No matter how the Director wanted their audience to feel. It does not matter. Nothing really changed.
Their Finest
The charming dramatic comedy Their Finest is set in England during World War II. With London emptied of its men now fighting at the Front, Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by the British Ministry of Information as a “slop” scriptwriter charged with bringing “a woman’s touch” to morale-boosting propaganda films. Her natural flair quickly gets her noticed by dashing movie producer Buckley (Sam Claflin), whose path would never have crossed hers in peacetime. As bombs are dropping all around them, Catrin, Buckley and a colorful crew work furiously to make a film that will warm the hearts of the nation. Although Catrin’s artist husband (Jack Huston) looks down on her job, she quickly discovers there is as much camaraderie, laughter and passion behind the camera as there is onscreen. Bill Nighy co-stars. Directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education, One Day). I loved this movie. Every detail worked perfectly, it flowed beautifully, the dialogue was perfect and I laughed out loud and cried, too.
Hannah and Her Sisters, 1992
Wonderful Woody Allen with his dialogue and various stories and humor and pathos.
Quiet Passion
This is the story of the life of Emily Dickinson. She was a recluse and a poet and utterly introverted and fragile. Her interior life was her life and others rotated around her sensitive orbit placating her bitterness and fears, her loss and loneliness. The photography and pace of the film were perfect. They quoted her poetry throughout as voice overs, focusing on her obsession with death the eternity and the life after. I found the film fine and lyrical and well done and only a very few would love it.
Our Betters, 1933
Constance Bennett. Gilbert Roland. Somerset Maugham's party satirizing immortality among Britain's upper classes. I was astounded by the richness of this dialogue. The relevance of the themes of betrayal and of friendship, of the condition of marriage and romance and lovers and deception and discretion. It was fabulous. And stunning by how relevant all of it is today.
The Wedding Plan
The Wedding Plan is a poignant and funny romantic comedy about love, marriage and faith in life’s infinite possibilities. At 32, Michal (Noa Koler) is finally looking forward to the comfort and security of marriage, when she is blindsided by her fiancé’s decision to call off the wedding with only a month’s notice. Unwilling to return to lonely single life, Michal decides to put her trust in fate and continue with her wedding plans, believing Mr. Right will appear by her chosen date. Confident she will find a match made in heaven, she books a venue, sends out invitations and buys a wedding dress, as her skeptical mother and sister look on with trepidation. During Michal’s month-long search for a spouse, she enlists the help of two different matchmakers, goes on a series of disastrous blind dates and finds an unexpected connection with a charming but utterly unsuitable pop star—all while dismissing pleas by concerned friends and family members that she reconsider her risky plan. As the day of the ceremony grows closer and no suitor appears, Michal puts everything on the line to find happiness. The second film from American-Israeli writer/director Rama Burshtein (Fill the Void). (Fully subtitled) I found the movie almost too serious - there were no light moments. The women to me, were for the most part, so unattractive. I feel so badly that they feel obligated to marry these men who seemed decent for the most part, on paper, and yet, to be married to them —- well you experienced that —- controlling and authoritarian and right and superior and arrogant. Underneath the costume.
I also found it hard to understand her - what she was trying to say - her dialogue at times felt convoluted.
The desperation of all of these women - to me it was tragic. They had no other recourse of survival.
A Woman's Life
Susan Cross and I walked out. I cannot even remember what it was about! Boring and tedious and dull.
Obit
I saw it with Rachel and we laughed. The dry Jewish humor. The quotations pasted around their work areas. It was droll and Jewish and witty and funny.
Graduation
The Outlaw and His Wife, 1917
Silent. Victor Sjostrom. Edith Erastorf. Sjostrom stars and directed this classic about the ill fated liaison between a fugitive and a widow in the 19 century in Ireland.
The Lovers, 1958
Jeanne Moreau. Alain Cuny
She was afraid but she had no regrets. They se off on a long journey, unaware of its certainty, uncertain if ever recapturing that first night, the happiness of that first night, already in the torturous hours of dawn, she had her doubts. She was afraid but she regretted nothing. Once the object of censorial uproar, this adult film by Louis Malle explores the extramarital affair of a socialite.
Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) returns as the title character in the epic action adventure Wonder Woman. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny. Joining Gadot in the international cast are Chris Pine (the Star Trek films), Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, Lucy Davis, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Eugene Brave Rock and Saïd Taghmaoui. Directed by Patty Jenkins (writer/director of the Oscar-winning Monster). Great film for its genre. Loved Gal Gadot. She made the film. Feminine, yet strong. Only an Israeli woman who has been through the Israeli army could play this part well.
Wakefield
A creepy movie about a man who abandons his family and two teenage twin daughters, to go and live over the attic of the garage, and spy on them and watch them suffer and torment over the next year, as they wonder how he just vanished into thin it. It was deeply disturbing how he seemed to get joy from their suffering and loss of him. I knew his wife, Jennifer Gardner, would take him back because he would say that he had a mental breakdown. When in truth, it was planned and deliberate.
My Cousin Rachel
There Goes My Heart, 1938
Fredrick March. Virginia Bruce. A reporter traces a runaway rich girl and finds her working in her family department store and of course, she is stubborn and he is proud, and of course, they fall in love. Two star.
Letter From An Unknown Woman, 1947
Max Ophuls. Director. This movie takes place in Vienna 1900. The pianist Brand (Louis Jourdan) receives a letter from Lisa (Joan Fontaine), a young woman who he does not remember but whose life has has affected in tragic ways. The transitions were weak. Fontaine was utterly miscast. She was boring with no personality. Jourdan was working hard and is he gorgeous! She came across to me as a stalker. There was no chemistry between them so the film did not work.
Northanger Abbey, 1987
Katharine Schlesinger. Peter Firth. Jane Austen's 1818 comedy of manners, about a woman who finds love on a visit to Bath. It is all about class and money. Poor drama interpretation.
Past Life
An Israeli film about two young adult daughters who discover that their father had a secret life during the war. His secret was not large enough to carry the film. It was way too dramatic and made to be suspenseful when it actually was not. I would have walked out. But, didn't. It was exhausting. As the movie processes itself, I realized how much I hated it. The secret was way too small to carry the suspense and drama of the film. His girlfriend, whom he rejected after he had gotten her pregnant, committed suicide. Why is this blame worthy of 40 years, under such drama! This is life. It happens all the time in life. Girl and boy fall in love. Girl gets pregnant. Boy does not marry her. Girl feels rejected. But, then commits suicided over it????? I don’t think so. And, then the whole cancer element, as if this was Divine Intervention for forcing his girlfriend to commit suicide, I think was a stretch.
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan,
Documentary about her life as a dancer and all of her disappointments because she is now 47 and has to return from being the Principal Ballet Dancer from the Royal Ballet. She came across as her entire life and being are dance-nothing else matters or exists. Profoundly narcissistic and self-absorbed. Very well done.
The Book of Henry
Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single mother Susan (Naomi Watts) works as a waitress at a diner, alongside her feisty friend Sheila (Sarah Silverman). Her youngest son Peter (Jacob Tremblay) is a playful 8-year-old. Taking care of everyone and everything is Susan’s precocious older son Henry (Jaeden Lieberher), age 11. Protector to his adoring younger brother and tireless supporter of his often self-doubting mother—and, through investments, of the family—Henry blazes through the days like a comet. When Henry develops a crush on the girl next door, his kind classmate Christina (Maddie Ziegler), he quickly senses that something is terrifyingly amiss and devises a surprising plan to help. As his brainstormed rescue plan for Christina takes shape in thrilling ways, Susan soon finds herself at the center of it. Directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World, Safety Not Guaranteed). Suspenseful and good enough. Actually, just another movie but it was absorbing for two hours.
Maudie
Maudie is based on the true story of folk artist Maud Lewis (Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine, Happy-Go-Lucky) and the unlikely romance between her and a hardened reclusive bachelor, Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke, Boyhood). A bright-eyed, intelligent woman, hunched with crippled hands from arthritis, Maud yearns to be independent and to live away from her overly protective family. She escapes her solitary existence in her aunt’s home through her art, until in her early 30s she answers an advertisement for a housekeeper. Everett Lewis is a 40-year-old bachelor who owes nothing to anyone. Abandoned by his parents at a very young age, he has nevertheless managed to become a proud and self-sufficient man. When Maud answers the ad, Everett hesitates at first, but quickly finds himself falling in love. Maud’s determination for her art, along with her partnership with Everett, blossoms into a career as a famous folk artist, bringing them closer together in ways they never imagined. I cried behind my eyes. This gem of a film is a word-of-the-mouth film.
It was brilliantly acted by both Hawkins and Hawke. It was nearly perfect. I loved it.
Table 16
This is a silly and mindless airplay filler film that should have gone straight to video. It shows the exaggerated lies people tell themselves and others, the pretense and make-believe. Bored but stuck with it.
Maud Leavey
I heartwarming and worthwhile film about a young lost and angry girl who had great difficulty communicating and connecting with people, yet because she was lost she joined the marines and became profoundly connected to her German Shephard dog, Rex, as she was assigned to decipher hidden road bombs in homes and on the roads of Iraq. She was badly wounded and Rex saved her life. This is based on a true story. She won the Purple Heart. Her acrimonious relationship with her mother felt real and the dialogue felt real too.
Midnight Return
The documentary made about the huge cultural division and scandal brought about this movie that the studio expected to fail. Billy Hayes was an opportunist who began to believe this film as if it was the truth. Very well done and suspenseful.
The Big Sick
The romantic comedy The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani, “Silicon Valley”), who connects with grad student Emily (Zoe Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents (Holly Hunter, Ray Romano) whom he's never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of-war between his family and his heart. Based on the real-life courtship between co-writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. Directed by Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name Is Doris). A cute romantic comedy. He wasn't funny. She was absolutely adorable. It was a true story. At times it lagged but overall it was fine.
The Beguilded
The Beguiled is an atmospheric thriller from acclaimed writer/director Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides). The story unfolds at a Southern girls’ boarding school during the Civil War, where its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier (Colin Farrell). As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Addison Riecke and Emma Howard. Winner of the Best Director award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. I hated this stylized film where it actually made no sense. The women and girls dressed magnificently. The AWOL soldier outmaneuvered and out smarted all of these repressed, love starved women, who, at the end of the day, got their revenge. It was slow, the climax came too late and then it was hurried. Marie Antoinette was her best film, which her Uncle really did.
Arbitrage, 2010
Richard Gere. Susan Saradon. A stupid film where Gere recklessly kills his girlfriend, lies to his wife and family, cooks the books of his business, frames the son of a loyal servant because he can get away with it because he is black, and at the end looses everything but goes free of any crime. A real Madoff character. Mindless movie.
13 Minutes
The true story of George Elser, a carpenter from Germany, who tried to kill Hitler and set the timer accordingly. This was the first time that Hitler gave a shower speech than usual and missed killing him by 13 minutes. It was a riveting and superb film in German by the Germans. They separate good German innocent people of course, from the Nazis and the Gestapo. How many good Germans were there?! From this film, it was a whole village! The Jewish component was practically non-existenct. However, Geoge was a courageous man, a quiet unsung hero.
Strange Weather
Holly Hunter. This was one of the worst films I have seen. It will bomb. Holly Hunter, I realized, I do not like as an actress. She is over wrought, exaggerates, is too over dramatic and so cold. I simply do not like cold people. And, having to spend two hours with her was simply too much for me. She is ugly and bony to boot. And, so angry. The people surrounding her were nice and they were trying to be nice to her. Why her boyfriend stuck around, I will never understand. Of course, the simplistic ending that the rich boy with his wealthy father, - well, he was really jealous of the relationship that Hunter had with her deceased sun who committed suicide. Who writes these scripts!? And, his comment validated that she was not the reason he committed suicide and all was resolved. Stupid. I know many people who have lost their children. They are not like Holly Hunter. It was ridiculous. Awful.
The Ghost Story
"With A Ghost Story, acclaimed writer/director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) returns with a singular exploration of legacy, loss and the essential human longing for meaning and connection. Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost (Academy Award-winner Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea) returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife (Academy Award-nominee Rooney Mara, Carol, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away. Increasingly unmoored, the ghost embarks on a cosmic journey through memory and history, confronting life’s ineffable questions and the enormity of existence. An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, A Ghost Story emerges ecstatic and surreal—a wholly-unique experience that lingers long after the credits roll." This is a tedious, inflated and infatuated with itself film. It thinks that it is heavy. It thinks that it is profound. It thinks that it is clever and philosophical. I would say it is the McDonald's of all of these "thinks." I hated it. Became bored with it's ponderous style and heavy handedness. This is a film maker who is in love with his idea and the execution of it.
Scarlet Street, 1945
Ed G. Robinson. Joan Bennett. A lonely married man whose only solace is painting meets a woman who thinks he is a famous artist and they begin an affair under the pressure from her boyfriend to milk him out of his money. But he is double-crossed by his lover and her boyfriend and conned into embezzling money from his employer.
Brave New Jersey
This farce or fable or satire was so bad, I do not even want to spend time writing about it. It took place in the 1938 in a small NJ town that has been spooked by a martian threat. The people are not real. It is PC, like what is a Polish gentile boy escaping Poland if he is not Jewish? foul language, never heard of at that time, especially in front of women, no one got killed with all these amateurs holding rifles, blacks socializing in Church with the whites, as if this happened and when the black man is hiding, the whites came around because they cared? what kind of fabrication is this! It was truly dreadful. There was no integrity or honesty to this film and because of it, none of the humor worked either.
Foreign Corespondent, 1940
Joel McCrea. Laraine Day. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. I love Joel McCrea. Interesting biography. He was such a handsome leading man, in the James Stewart sense. This classic is a tale of murder and intrigue, set on the eve of WW2. A NY crime reporter is sent to London to uncover political machinations overseas and while there he makes some interests and risks his life. It is a thriller in the 1940 style and utterly wonderful.
Chance At Heaven, 1933
Joel McCrea. Marion Nixon. It is a story about a gas station attendant who is engaged to a local girl, Ginger Rogers, but falls for a socialite who visits his gas station and flirts with him. He ends up marrying her much to her mother's disdain and fury. She becomes pregnant. The baby is "lost", she went to NY and got an abortion.
This is not directly said but implied and under her mother's wings, she divorces him. He ends up with local girl. This movie could never be made today, what with the identity politics, abortion, class and wealth divide. However, Joel McCrea and a young Jimmy Stewart and Joseph Cotton and Cary Grant have always been my favorite leading men. I love them all.
Gal Gadot (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) returns as the title character in the epic action adventure Wonder Woman. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny. Joining Gadot in the international cast are Chris Pine (the Star Trek films), Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, Lucy Davis, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Eugene Brave Rock and Saïd Taghmaoui. Directed by Patty Jenkins (writer/director of the Oscar-winning Monster). Great film for its genre. Loved Gal Gadot. She made the film. Feminine, yet strong. Only an Israeli woman who has been through the Israeli army could play this part well.
Wakefield
A creepy movie about a man who abandons his family and two teenage twin daughters, to go and live over the attic of the garage, and spy on them and watch them suffer and torment over the next year, as they wonder how he just vanished into thin it. It was deeply disturbing how he seemed to get joy from their suffering and loss of him. I knew his wife, Jennifer Gardner, would take him back because he would say that he had a mental breakdown. When in truth, it was planned and deliberate.
My Cousin Rachel
A dark and layered romance, My Cousin Rachel tells the story of a young Englishman (Sam Claflin, Their Finest) who plots revenge against his mysterious and beautiful cousin (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener), believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms. Also starring Holliday Grainger and Iain Glen, My Cousin Rachel is adapted from the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name by director Roger Michell (Le Week-End, Morning Glory, Notting Hill). I did not like this film. It just did not work. It was always hard to understand his motive of giving away his entire estate because he was caught by passion and desire. I love Sam Claflin though. This is the 3rd film that I have seen him in and he is terrific.
Maurice
This is one of the most extraordinary homosexual films I have ever seen. It is a Merchant Ivory production. It was made 30 years ago, in 1987, so dialogue was wonderful and it was discreet and not in your face. Taken around the turn of the century, in England, it is the story of two men who fall in love with each other and will stand to loose everything, reputation, honor, if their homosexuality is discovered. Written by E.M. Foster, it is the story of his life. I was riveted and haunted by the exquisite revelation of this subject matter, done with discretion and beauty and emotional tragedy. I loved it and could not stop thinking about it for days after. There Goes My Heart, 1938
Fredrick March. Virginia Bruce. A reporter traces a runaway rich girl and finds her working in her family department store and of course, she is stubborn and he is proud, and of course, they fall in love. Two star.
Letter From An Unknown Woman, 1947
Max Ophuls. Director. This movie takes place in Vienna 1900. The pianist Brand (Louis Jourdan) receives a letter from Lisa (Joan Fontaine), a young woman who he does not remember but whose life has has affected in tragic ways. The transitions were weak. Fontaine was utterly miscast. She was boring with no personality. Jourdan was working hard and is he gorgeous! She came across to me as a stalker. There was no chemistry between them so the film did not work.
Northanger Abbey, 1987
Katharine Schlesinger. Peter Firth. Jane Austen's 1818 comedy of manners, about a woman who finds love on a visit to Bath. It is all about class and money. Poor drama interpretation.
Past Life
An Israeli film about two young adult daughters who discover that their father had a secret life during the war. His secret was not large enough to carry the film. It was way too dramatic and made to be suspenseful when it actually was not. I would have walked out. But, didn't. It was exhausting. As the movie processes itself, I realized how much I hated it. The secret was way too small to carry the suspense and drama of the film. His girlfriend, whom he rejected after he had gotten her pregnant, committed suicide. Why is this blame worthy of 40 years, under such drama! This is life. It happens all the time in life. Girl and boy fall in love. Girl gets pregnant. Boy does not marry her. Girl feels rejected. But, then commits suicided over it????? I don’t think so. And, then the whole cancer element, as if this was Divine Intervention for forcing his girlfriend to commit suicide, I think was a stretch.
Documentary about her life as a dancer and all of her disappointments because she is now 47 and has to return from being the Principal Ballet Dancer from the Royal Ballet. She came across as her entire life and being are dance-nothing else matters or exists. Profoundly narcissistic and self-absorbed. Very well done.
The Book of Henry
Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single mother Susan (Naomi Watts) works as a waitress at a diner, alongside her feisty friend Sheila (Sarah Silverman). Her youngest son Peter (Jacob Tremblay) is a playful 8-year-old. Taking care of everyone and everything is Susan’s precocious older son Henry (Jaeden Lieberher), age 11. Protector to his adoring younger brother and tireless supporter of his often self-doubting mother—and, through investments, of the family—Henry blazes through the days like a comet. When Henry develops a crush on the girl next door, his kind classmate Christina (Maddie Ziegler), he quickly senses that something is terrifyingly amiss and devises a surprising plan to help. As his brainstormed rescue plan for Christina takes shape in thrilling ways, Susan soon finds herself at the center of it. Directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World, Safety Not Guaranteed). Suspenseful and good enough. Actually, just another movie but it was absorbing for two hours.
Maudie
Maudie is based on the true story of folk artist Maud Lewis (Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine, Happy-Go-Lucky) and the unlikely romance between her and a hardened reclusive bachelor, Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke, Boyhood). A bright-eyed, intelligent woman, hunched with crippled hands from arthritis, Maud yearns to be independent and to live away from her overly protective family. She escapes her solitary existence in her aunt’s home through her art, until in her early 30s she answers an advertisement for a housekeeper. Everett Lewis is a 40-year-old bachelor who owes nothing to anyone. Abandoned by his parents at a very young age, he has nevertheless managed to become a proud and self-sufficient man. When Maud answers the ad, Everett hesitates at first, but quickly finds himself falling in love. Maud’s determination for her art, along with her partnership with Everett, blossoms into a career as a famous folk artist, bringing them closer together in ways they never imagined. I cried behind my eyes. This gem of a film is a word-of-the-mouth film.
It was brilliantly acted by both Hawkins and Hawke. It was nearly perfect. I loved it.
Table 16
This is a silly and mindless airplay filler film that should have gone straight to video. It shows the exaggerated lies people tell themselves and others, the pretense and make-believe. Bored but stuck with it.
Maud Leavey
I heartwarming and worthwhile film about a young lost and angry girl who had great difficulty communicating and connecting with people, yet because she was lost she joined the marines and became profoundly connected to her German Shephard dog, Rex, as she was assigned to decipher hidden road bombs in homes and on the roads of Iraq. She was badly wounded and Rex saved her life. This is based on a true story. She won the Purple Heart. Her acrimonious relationship with her mother felt real and the dialogue felt real too.
Midnight Return
The documentary made about the huge cultural division and scandal brought about this movie that the studio expected to fail. Billy Hayes was an opportunist who began to believe this film as if it was the truth. Very well done and suspenseful.
The Big Sick
The romantic comedy The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani, “Silicon Valley”), who connects with grad student Emily (Zoe Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents (Holly Hunter, Ray Romano) whom he's never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of-war between his family and his heart. Based on the real-life courtship between co-writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. Directed by Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name Is Doris). A cute romantic comedy. He wasn't funny. She was absolutely adorable. It was a true story. At times it lagged but overall it was fine.
The Beguilded
The Beguiled is an atmospheric thriller from acclaimed writer/director Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides). The story unfolds at a Southern girls’ boarding school during the Civil War, where its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier (Colin Farrell). As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Addison Riecke and Emma Howard. Winner of the Best Director award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. I hated this stylized film where it actually made no sense. The women and girls dressed magnificently. The AWOL soldier outmaneuvered and out smarted all of these repressed, love starved women, who, at the end of the day, got their revenge. It was slow, the climax came too late and then it was hurried. Marie Antoinette was her best film, which her Uncle really did.
Arbitrage, 2010
Richard Gere. Susan Saradon. A stupid film where Gere recklessly kills his girlfriend, lies to his wife and family, cooks the books of his business, frames the son of a loyal servant because he can get away with it because he is black, and at the end looses everything but goes free of any crime. A real Madoff character. Mindless movie.
13 Minutes
The true story of George Elser, a carpenter from Germany, who tried to kill Hitler and set the timer accordingly. This was the first time that Hitler gave a shower speech than usual and missed killing him by 13 minutes. It was a riveting and superb film in German by the Germans. They separate good German innocent people of course, from the Nazis and the Gestapo. How many good Germans were there?! From this film, it was a whole village! The Jewish component was practically non-existenct. However, Geoge was a courageous man, a quiet unsung hero.
Strange Weather
Holly Hunter. This was one of the worst films I have seen. It will bomb. Holly Hunter, I realized, I do not like as an actress. She is over wrought, exaggerates, is too over dramatic and so cold. I simply do not like cold people. And, having to spend two hours with her was simply too much for me. She is ugly and bony to boot. And, so angry. The people surrounding her were nice and they were trying to be nice to her. Why her boyfriend stuck around, I will never understand. Of course, the simplistic ending that the rich boy with his wealthy father, - well, he was really jealous of the relationship that Hunter had with her deceased sun who committed suicide. Who writes these scripts!? And, his comment validated that she was not the reason he committed suicide and all was resolved. Stupid. I know many people who have lost their children. They are not like Holly Hunter. It was ridiculous. Awful.
The Ghost Story
"With A Ghost Story, acclaimed writer/director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) returns with a singular exploration of legacy, loss and the essential human longing for meaning and connection. Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost (Academy Award-winner Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea) returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife (Academy Award-nominee Rooney Mara, Carol, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away. Increasingly unmoored, the ghost embarks on a cosmic journey through memory and history, confronting life’s ineffable questions and the enormity of existence. An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, A Ghost Story emerges ecstatic and surreal—a wholly-unique experience that lingers long after the credits roll." This is a tedious, inflated and infatuated with itself film. It thinks that it is heavy. It thinks that it is profound. It thinks that it is clever and philosophical. I would say it is the McDonald's of all of these "thinks." I hated it. Became bored with it's ponderous style and heavy handedness. This is a film maker who is in love with his idea and the execution of it.
Scarlet Street, 1945
Ed G. Robinson. Joan Bennett. A lonely married man whose only solace is painting meets a woman who thinks he is a famous artist and they begin an affair under the pressure from her boyfriend to milk him out of his money. But he is double-crossed by his lover and her boyfriend and conned into embezzling money from his employer.
Brave New Jersey
This farce or fable or satire was so bad, I do not even want to spend time writing about it. It took place in the 1938 in a small NJ town that has been spooked by a martian threat. The people are not real. It is PC, like what is a Polish gentile boy escaping Poland if he is not Jewish? foul language, never heard of at that time, especially in front of women, no one got killed with all these amateurs holding rifles, blacks socializing in Church with the whites, as if this happened and when the black man is hiding, the whites came around because they cared? what kind of fabrication is this! It was truly dreadful. There was no integrity or honesty to this film and because of it, none of the humor worked either.
Foreign Corespondent, 1940
Joel McCrea. Laraine Day. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. I love Joel McCrea. Interesting biography. He was such a handsome leading man, in the James Stewart sense. This classic is a tale of murder and intrigue, set on the eve of WW2. A NY crime reporter is sent to London to uncover political machinations overseas and while there he makes some interests and risks his life. It is a thriller in the 1940 style and utterly wonderful.
Chance At Heaven, 1933
Joel McCrea. Marion Nixon. It is a story about a gas station attendant who is engaged to a local girl, Ginger Rogers, but falls for a socialite who visits his gas station and flirts with him. He ends up marrying her much to her mother's disdain and fury. She becomes pregnant. The baby is "lost", she went to NY and got an abortion.
This is not directly said but implied and under her mother's wings, she divorces him. He ends up with local girl. This movie could never be made today, what with the identity politics, abortion, class and wealth divide. However, Joel McCrea and a young Jimmy Stewart and Joseph Cotton and Cary Grant have always been my favorite leading men. I love them all.
Lady McBeth
Set in rural England in 1865, the austere, riveting drama Lady Macbeth stars Florence Pugh in an unforgettable performance as Katherine, a young woman stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age, and his cold, unforgiving family. When she embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with a young worker on her husband’s estate (Cosmo Jarvis), a force is unleashed inside her so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Winner of 11 international awards. Written by Alice Birch, based on Nikolai Leskov’s novella. Directed by William Oldroyd, in a commanding feature debut. This is a very serious and intense film. The stage setting and character development and unfolding story is well spun and chilling to the core. Initially, you have sympathy with Macbeth but as the story begins to unravel, and you see her hard, manipulative user heart, you realize that you are dealing with a sociopath, who has no boundaries to how far she will go to get what she wants.
Born To Love, 1931
Joel McCrea. Constance Bennett. A wartime affair between a beautiful nurse and a flier presents problems when he has reported killed and she finds herself pregnant. The other man marries her and take the baby as his own and no one knows that he is not the biological father. I watched this light romantic, stilted film only because of Joel McCrea. But, he acted as stiff as the film presented itself. The sophisticated story line took a deep curve mid-way through the film that took me for surprise and was not what I expected. A C- at best.
The Brothers Karamazov, 1958
Yul Brynner. This film is considered the finest interpretation of this Russian classic. I decided to watch it before I began to read it so that I would have a Cliff Notes outline of the book. After, I watched the film which was beautifully cast and photographed, I do not need to read the book. It was a long film, or at least felt like it. It possessed deeply religious and moral overtones in contrast to shady at best, complex and intriguing characters, especially the women. The range of psychological emotion possessed the film. The treacherous hearts. The revengeful rejected lover. Scorned. The pure hearted priest. The father/son conflict. The woman everyone wanted to make love to. The loyal and devoted servant. It was heavy indeed. I felt that Yul Brynner is too type cast in The King and I. He will never be able to play any role but that.
The Only Living Boy In New York
An elitist, pretentious, poor version of a Woody Allen film, even down to the dining dinner. Kate Beckinsale was miscast. She was too nice. Callum Turner was excellent. But, there was too many imitative things from other movies. And, once I figured out who the real father was, the movie became very predictable. It was lacking. It was good enough but not good enough, either. The dialogue felt forced and very impressed with itself.
Dunkirk
"From writer/director Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy) comes the epic action thriller Dunkirk. Told from the perspectives of land, sea and air, the stunning WWII film opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in. 400,000 men couldn’t get home, so home came for them during a daring rescue operation. Ensemble cast includes Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, James D'Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney. Photographed on film in 70mm, this is a rare opportunity to see the film projected in 70mm as well!." The movie could have been a great film but it had no context. It could have been called Rescue and pretty much applied to any war. It was extremely well done as a war film and I even found myself choked up at times. All they need was some written script at the beginning and at the end, and it would have solved the problem with context and meaning. And, then it would have been a great film. But it was done in PC channels. They never even mentioned, but twice and vaguely, Winston Churchill. They never used the word Nazi or Kraut or Germans. It was always the enemy. Even the German planes, which were loaded with swatsikas, never had painted even one. It was all stupid and silly in the PC correction of the Left.
Menashe
A heartwarming and moving film of the ultra orthodox Hassidic world of a shemeil, who has a heart, but is treated badly by everyone around him, except by the Rabbi. People treat him with contempt when he is only trying to survive and get his son back. He is honest but it seems as if he grew up without understanding and comprehension and no one explaining anything to him. He just floundered and this adult is who he has become. It is sad. He knows what he has to do - get married -but what can he offer except to make a woman very unhappy as he does not seem to grasp the world. I thought it was a wonderful film.
Columbus
Joel McCrea. Constance Bennett. A wartime affair between a beautiful nurse and a flier presents problems when he has reported killed and she finds herself pregnant. The other man marries her and take the baby as his own and no one knows that he is not the biological father. I watched this light romantic, stilted film only because of Joel McCrea. But, he acted as stiff as the film presented itself. The sophisticated story line took a deep curve mid-way through the film that took me for surprise and was not what I expected. A C- at best.
The Brothers Karamazov, 1958
Yul Brynner. This film is considered the finest interpretation of this Russian classic. I decided to watch it before I began to read it so that I would have a Cliff Notes outline of the book. After, I watched the film which was beautifully cast and photographed, I do not need to read the book. It was a long film, or at least felt like it. It possessed deeply religious and moral overtones in contrast to shady at best, complex and intriguing characters, especially the women. The range of psychological emotion possessed the film. The treacherous hearts. The revengeful rejected lover. Scorned. The pure hearted priest. The father/son conflict. The woman everyone wanted to make love to. The loyal and devoted servant. It was heavy indeed. I felt that Yul Brynner is too type cast in The King and I. He will never be able to play any role but that.
The Only Living Boy In New York
An elitist, pretentious, poor version of a Woody Allen film, even down to the dining dinner. Kate Beckinsale was miscast. She was too nice. Callum Turner was excellent. But, there was too many imitative things from other movies. And, once I figured out who the real father was, the movie became very predictable. It was lacking. It was good enough but not good enough, either. The dialogue felt forced and very impressed with itself.
Dunkirk
"From writer/director Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy) comes the epic action thriller Dunkirk. Told from the perspectives of land, sea and air, the stunning WWII film opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in. 400,000 men couldn’t get home, so home came for them during a daring rescue operation. Ensemble cast includes Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, James D'Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney. Photographed on film in 70mm, this is a rare opportunity to see the film projected in 70mm as well!." The movie could have been a great film but it had no context. It could have been called Rescue and pretty much applied to any war. It was extremely well done as a war film and I even found myself choked up at times. All they need was some written script at the beginning and at the end, and it would have solved the problem with context and meaning. And, then it would have been a great film. But it was done in PC channels. They never even mentioned, but twice and vaguely, Winston Churchill. They never used the word Nazi or Kraut or Germans. It was always the enemy. Even the German planes, which were loaded with swatsikas, never had painted even one. It was all stupid and silly in the PC correction of the Left.
Menashe
A heartwarming and moving film of the ultra orthodox Hassidic world of a shemeil, who has a heart, but is treated badly by everyone around him, except by the Rabbi. People treat him with contempt when he is only trying to survive and get his son back. He is honest but it seems as if he grew up without understanding and comprehension and no one explaining anything to him. He just floundered and this adult is who he has become. It is sad. He knows what he has to do - get married -but what can he offer except to make a woman very unhappy as he does not seem to grasp the world. I thought it was a wonderful film.
Columbus
When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his estranged son Jin (John Cho, Star Trek, Harold & Kumar) finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana—a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings, which make a beautiful setting for the story. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson, Split, The Edge of Seventeen), a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library. As their intimacy develops, Jin and Casey explore both the town and their conflicted emotions: Jin's troubled relationship with his father, and Casey's reluctance to leave Columbus and her ailing mother. With its naturalistic rhythms and empathy for the complexities of families, debut director Kogonada's romantic drama unfolds as a gently drifting, deeply absorbing conversation. With strong supporting turns from Parker Posey, Rory Culkin and Michelle Forbes, Columbus is also a treat for architecture buffs and a showcase for its director's striking eye for the way physical space can affect emotions. Winner of a Special Jury Prize for Narrative Feature at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. This extremely slow moving film made me feel as if I was smashing on my brakes from the fast lane to the slow one. It felt real, the conversations did to, but it was stylized somewhat. I saw it with a friend so I could not relax and enjoy it as I felt responsible for taking her. She did not care for it. And, I could feel that. I found it poetry and I loved the architecture and all the discussion and comments about this subject. For me, this is what made the film for me, more than the story itself.
Chosen Yet Excluded
Joachim Schroeder. Sophie Hafner. A high octane documentary about what it is like to really live as Jews in Europe. The content and material was enough. They did not need to make it Michael Mooreish. It was too intense and exhausting to also have to take in the content, just by the way it was filmed.
Gook
An extremely well done, fine film about the tensions that arose between the Korean shops and the blacks with the Rodney King riots as a backdrop. Acting, especially Kamilla, played by Simone Baker, and Eli, played by Justin Chon, was fabulous. It was a very wonderful film but it was extremely intense and harsh with much foul and dangerous language and I imagine it playing well in Festivals but not in theaters.
Gook
An extremely well done, fine film about the tensions that arose between the Korean shops and the blacks with the Rodney King riots as a backdrop. Acting, especially Kamilla, played by Simone Baker, and Eli, played by Justin Chon, was fabulous. It was a very wonderful film but it was extremely intense and harsh with much foul and dangerous language and I imagine it playing well in Festivals but not in theaters.
The Glass Castle
Chronicling the adventures of an eccentric, resilient and tight-knit family, The Glass Castle is a remarkable story of unconditional love. Oscar winner Brie Larson (Room) brings Jeannette Walls’s best-selling memoir to life as a young woman who, influenced by the joyfully wild nature of her deeply dysfunctional father (Woody Harrelson), found the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. Also starring Naomi Watts. Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton. I found the film well done with accomplished actors. But, as always, the movie was so far better. In the movie the father was sympathetic. In the book, he was not. In the movie the scale of the abuse was a horror show. In the movie, it was softened, especially with the grandmother. I thought that Brie Larson was fabulous for her role. She was not afraid of her father, at all.
The Fencer
Finnish. Russian. Estonia Foreign Film. It made the final 9 in the 2016 Academy Award and should have won in this category. It was nuanced, and subtle and fine and layered and textured. I cried on so many levels. It is the true story of a fencing coach who teaches children who are orphaned and betrayed how to fence but it is so much more than that. It is the story of life and its disappointments and ruptures and betrayals and loss and distrust and government repression. It is also the story of discipline and hardwood and focus and taking all of your unspoken emotions and thrusting them into a higher purpose and calling. A marvelous, marvelous outstanding film.
Born To Love, 1931
Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, 1931. A wartime affair between a nurse and a flier presents problems when he is reported killed and she finds herself pregnant. The dialogue was quite revealing, even by today's standards. And, the the situation was handled, was also quite implicit and daring for its time. I love Joel McCrea. He is great along with James Stewart and John Wayne and Cary Grant.
The Adventures of Curious George's Creators.
Monkey Business
A very well done documentary for young and adult alike. Margaret was a typical German aggressive, no-nonsense, no fun, tank like and driven tough woman. She was not attractive. Her husband was the gentle man whom children loved to be with. She was the power behind him. In fact, she flew to Rio to marry him, even though he did not even know she was coming on this mission. They never had children. She said that neither were in love with the other. He was 38 and she was 30. They were friends and both seemed to want to get married. Her purpose in life was to make him and her both famous.
The 75 minute documentary, produced and directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and narrated by Sam Waterston is now complete.
It had its first screening at the Manhattan JCC last week, and yesterday it was released for home viewing on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Kaleidescape, FandangoNow, Xbox, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Verizon, Charter, Suddenlink, Mediacom, WOW!, Midcontinent, Metrocast, Clearleap, RCN, Telus (CA), Virgin Media (UK), Globosat (LATAM), Dish, and DirecTV.
Curious George is the most popular monkey in the world. Since his introduction in the first publication in 1941, the beloved series has sold over 75 million books in more than 25 languages.
The MONKEY BUSINESS documentary explores the lesser-known tale of George’s creators, Hans and Margret Rey. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, the Reys first met when Hans was dating Margret’s older sister. Years later, having heard that Hans was wasting his artistic talents as a bookkeeper in Rio, Margret traveled to Brazil to persuade him to marry her and do something creative together. After their four-week honeymoon to Paris turned into a four-year residency, they accidentally became children’s book authors when a publisher suggested they create a book out of a cartoon Hans had drawn.
Being German Jews, however, their life in Paris abruptly came to an end in June 1940 when the Reys were forced to escape from the Nazis by riding makeshift bicycles—a manuscript of the first Curious George book was one of the few possessions they could smuggle out with them. Arriving in New York as refugees, they started their life anew and over the next three decades they created a classic that continues to touch the hearts and minds of children around the world.
California Typewriter
Tom Hanks. John Mayer. David McCullough. Same Shepard. Martin Howard. Jeremy Mayer. The cast was articulate and thoughtful. This is a sub cult of people who are passionate about typewriters. This documentary gives the history with humor and charm. It is like Yiddish lovers and photography film lovers. How they all cherish their typewriters! Great film!
Stage Fright, 1950
Jane Wyman. Marlene Dietrich. Alfred Hitchcock's thriller about illicit romance and murder in London's Theater world spins around an acting student who goes undercover to expose a killer. It starts out with you thinking Dietrich is a killer but Hitchcock uses a clever tactic with the flashback starting with a lie.
A Sailor-Made Man, 1921
Silent Film. Harold Lloyd. Naval escapades in an exotic India post. I saw this with Maayan and we were laughing out loud!
Enjoying it immensely!
Snatched
Goldie Hawn. An absolutely silly film but I laughed out loud on the plane of a daughter taking her mother to Columbia and getting snatched. It reminded me of Bridesmaids with Amy Schumer who plays deadpan. Dialogue reminded me so much of Yael and me.
Heat and Dust, 1962
Julie Chistie. What a Masterpiece of a bygone era, when real films were made that possessed character and plot and development and dialogue and class. How far we have dummied down to what is today called film. This was a rare experience and an unforgettable one. The old time epic of mammoth proportion.
Wind River
"Wind River is a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past (Jeremy Renner) to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American Reservation in the hopes of solving her mysterious death. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Hell or High Water), Wind River also stars Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Julia Jones, Kelsey Asbille and James Jordan." This was a phenomenal film for its genre and that is because of Jeremy Renner. The movie was riveting and there was an honesty, the dialogue had meaning and substance even though it was succinct. There was a nice flow and the backdrop of Wyoming was gorgeous. I loved it as hard as it was to feel it from the level that the actors were giving of themselves. It was a marvelous well done and fine piece of film work.
The Mountain Between Us
Kate Wislet. Idris Elba. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad. Even though he wanted to make it a color-blind film, to me, it never succeeded. I never forget that Idris, who played the love object, was black. It did become a black/white issue. It did not work for me. It even had the stereotype black man making love. I liked how the director explained why she worked in a dark room.
The movie sagged at times, dragged at others, the love story seemed to be the object of the film and the rescue part, a backdrop from which they fell in love. It was a talky talky film. I wasn't crazy about it. For me, there was something missing.
Lucky
"The warm dramatic comedy Lucky follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. Having out lived and out smoked all of his contemporaries, the fiercely independent Lucky (Harry Dean Stanton) finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration, leading towards that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment. Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch's directorial debut is at once a love letter to the life and career of Stanton (Alien, Repo Man, Pretty in Pink, Paris, Texas) as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality and human connection. Also starring David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Skerritt and Beth Grant." This poignant metaphorical imagery film on death and the end of life played out with exquisite precision and sensitivity by Stanton, I felt was a lyrical and lovely piece of film work. It revealed relationships and respect and dialogue by great character actors and at times, I felt as if I could cry.
The Florida Project
"The Florida Project is one of this year’s best films, a remarkable slice of life set in and around a motel on the fringes of Orlando, Florida. Here, little kids with no adult supervision find ways to amuse themselves day after day. While their parents struggle to survive and pay the rent, they always find things to occupy themselves, whether it’s admiring a rainbow, encountering farm animals, or begging strangers for money to buy ice cream. Some of their mischief gets out of hand, but there are few if any repercussions in their insular world.
LBJ
Woody Harrelson. Jennifer Jason Leigh. An old fashioned biopic film that is certainly made for my generation, with old fashioned dialogue and plot and character development. It was pondering and interesting, I was tired so did fall asleep for some of it. It captured Bobby Kennedy's hatred for LBJ and brash upstart cocky behavior. LBJ seemed more fumbling than I remember him but it also showed the political life without the cynicism and when people could work together in compromise and not take it all so personally. We have Obama to thank for this sea change.
Victoria & Abdul
"Director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Philomena) returns with Victoria & Abdul, the extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity. Co-starring Eddie Izzard, Adeel Akhtar and Michael Gambon. Screenplay by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), based on Shrabani Basu's best-selling biography."
"Goodbye Christopher Robin gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children's author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston), whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie-the-Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie), and his nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), Christopher Robin and his family are swept up in the international success of the books—the enchanting tales bringing hope and comfort to England after the First World War. But with the eyes of the world on Christopher Robin, what will the cost be to the family? Directed by Simon Curtis (Woman in Gold, My Week with Marilyn)."
I found the film much finer than the reviews. It was poignant and sad and the beginning of how celebrity impacts families and children, often to devastating results. Fortunately, Christopher survived. Had he not, Milne would have been a tortured soul for the rest of his life. I thought it was remarkably well done. It made me cry.
LadyBird
"In Lady Bird, writer/director Greta Gerwig reveals herself to be a bold new cinematic voice with her directorial debut, excavating both the humor and pathos in the turbulent bond between a mother and her teenage daughter. Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird's father (Tracy Letts) loses his job. Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, amidst a rapidly shifting American economic landscape, Lady Bird is an affecting look at the relationships that shape us, the beliefs that define us, and the unmatched beauty of a place called home. Also starring Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Lois Smith. Marvelous dialogue. Wonderful sympathetic actors.
Mother was very real. Loved it.
Interlude in Prague
I saw this film on Mozart twice on the plane. I loved the music. I loved the character that played Mozart, not the silly man/child from Amadeus. The movie was quite relevant taking issue with all of the sexual harassment. It was so well down and stayed true to form in costume, plot, storyline and music!
Mudbound
"Set in the post-WWII South, Mudbound is an epic story of two families pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad. The film is about friendship, unacknowledged heritage and the unending struggle for and against the land. Newly transplanted from the quiet civility of Memphis, the McAllan family is underprepared and overly hopeful for Henry’s (Jason Clarke) grandiose farming dreams. Laura (Carey Mulligan) struggles to keep the faith in her husband’s losing venture, meanwhile, for Hap (Rob Morgan) and Florence Jackson (Mary J. Blige), whose families have worked the land for generations, every day is a losing venture as they struggle bravely to build some small dream of their own. The war upends both families’ plans as their returning loved ones, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) forge a fast, uneasy friendship that challenges them all. Directed and co-written by Dee Rees (Bessie, Pariah)." This was a very violent, yet realistic film of relationships of what I imagined them to be in the deep Mississippi Delta after the War. At moments, I had crushing grief in particular scenes with the black woman and equal white wife. They reminded me of Clevie. But the strain and hatred and pretense and cost of maintaining civility at all cost exacted a great price and terror between blacks and whites. A powerful and well done film.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
is a darkly comedic drama from writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand, Fargo) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated. Supporting cast includes Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Željko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones, Clarke Peters, Samara Weaving, John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage.
This was a dark and tough film. There was much violence, and yet humanity did exist in each violent character.
McDormand will be nominated for an Oscar Award for her performance as a woman whose daughter died and her grief and guilt was simply too much for any human or mother to take in without being destroyed. Her rage and anger was her only way to keep herself a live. It all became too much to cope with the unbearable guilt from her daughter's death. It was an outstanding movie but an awfully tough one to absorb. I also saw 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing. Everyone is raving about this film especially Frances McDormand. I found the film unloveable, violent, human interactions harsh, much rage and anger and aggression all bottled up and exploding on screen. I found her acting the same. Has she ever acted in any other kind of part and with any other gestures than with the familiar ticks and hardness? They are the same expressions in all of her roles. I think that this is how she must be in real life as she plays herself time and again. Where is the acting?
Loving Vincent
A new kind of animation film that was hand painted and took two years to complete. It was boring and I kept dozing off but I am glad that I saw it for the affects of the new technology.
Foxtrot
I know that neither one of you cared for the film, that you went into the film with your own perceptions of how the army and Israel would be portrayed, Leftist and Harsh. In this regard, the Director did not let you down. Foreign Film Entries from Israel can only be accepted if they present this world view point regarding Israel. Unless it is Holocaust material.
Just Getting Started
This movie was so awful from the opening credits that we walked out. It stars Morgan Freeman, 75, Tommy Lee Jones, 73, Rene Russo in her late 60's. It was ridiculous and stupid and tedious and simply awful. It doesn't deserve any more time than this!
I, Tonya by Leonard Matlin
Chronicling the adventures of an eccentric, resilient and tight-knit family, The Glass Castle is a remarkable story of unconditional love. Oscar winner Brie Larson (Room) brings Jeannette Walls’s best-selling memoir to life as a young woman who, influenced by the joyfully wild nature of her deeply dysfunctional father (Woody Harrelson), found the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. Also starring Naomi Watts. Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton. I found the film well done with accomplished actors. But, as always, the movie was so far better. In the movie the father was sympathetic. In the book, he was not. In the movie the scale of the abuse was a horror show. In the movie, it was softened, especially with the grandmother. I thought that Brie Larson was fabulous for her role. She was not afraid of her father, at all.
The Fencer
Finnish. Russian. Estonia Foreign Film. It made the final 9 in the 2016 Academy Award and should have won in this category. It was nuanced, and subtle and fine and layered and textured. I cried on so many levels. It is the true story of a fencing coach who teaches children who are orphaned and betrayed how to fence but it is so much more than that. It is the story of life and its disappointments and ruptures and betrayals and loss and distrust and government repression. It is also the story of discipline and hardwood and focus and taking all of your unspoken emotions and thrusting them into a higher purpose and calling. A marvelous, marvelous outstanding film.
Born To Love, 1931
Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, 1931. A wartime affair between a nurse and a flier presents problems when he is reported killed and she finds herself pregnant. The dialogue was quite revealing, even by today's standards. And, the the situation was handled, was also quite implicit and daring for its time. I love Joel McCrea. He is great along with James Stewart and John Wayne and Cary Grant.
The Adventures of Curious George's Creators.
Monkey Business
A very well done documentary for young and adult alike. Margaret was a typical German aggressive, no-nonsense, no fun, tank like and driven tough woman. She was not attractive. Her husband was the gentle man whom children loved to be with. She was the power behind him. In fact, she flew to Rio to marry him, even though he did not even know she was coming on this mission. They never had children. She said that neither were in love with the other. He was 38 and she was 30. They were friends and both seemed to want to get married. Her purpose in life was to make him and her both famous.
The 75 minute documentary, produced and directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and narrated by Sam Waterston is now complete.
It had its first screening at the Manhattan JCC last week, and yesterday it was released for home viewing on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Kaleidescape, FandangoNow, Xbox, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Verizon, Charter, Suddenlink, Mediacom, WOW!, Midcontinent, Metrocast, Clearleap, RCN, Telus (CA), Virgin Media (UK), Globosat (LATAM), Dish, and DirecTV.
Curious George is the most popular monkey in the world. Since his introduction in the first publication in 1941, the beloved series has sold over 75 million books in more than 25 languages.
The MONKEY BUSINESS documentary explores the lesser-known tale of George’s creators, Hans and Margret Rey. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, the Reys first met when Hans was dating Margret’s older sister. Years later, having heard that Hans was wasting his artistic talents as a bookkeeper in Rio, Margret traveled to Brazil to persuade him to marry her and do something creative together. After their four-week honeymoon to Paris turned into a four-year residency, they accidentally became children’s book authors when a publisher suggested they create a book out of a cartoon Hans had drawn.
Being German Jews, however, their life in Paris abruptly came to an end in June 1940 when the Reys were forced to escape from the Nazis by riding makeshift bicycles—a manuscript of the first Curious George book was one of the few possessions they could smuggle out with them. Arriving in New York as refugees, they started their life anew and over the next three decades they created a classic that continues to touch the hearts and minds of children around the world.
California Typewriter
Tom Hanks. John Mayer. David McCullough. Same Shepard. Martin Howard. Jeremy Mayer. The cast was articulate and thoughtful. This is a sub cult of people who are passionate about typewriters. This documentary gives the history with humor and charm. It is like Yiddish lovers and photography film lovers. How they all cherish their typewriters! Great film!
Stage Fright, 1950
Jane Wyman. Marlene Dietrich. Alfred Hitchcock's thriller about illicit romance and murder in London's Theater world spins around an acting student who goes undercover to expose a killer. It starts out with you thinking Dietrich is a killer but Hitchcock uses a clever tactic with the flashback starting with a lie.
A Sailor-Made Man, 1921
Silent Film. Harold Lloyd. Naval escapades in an exotic India post. I saw this with Maayan and we were laughing out loud!
Enjoying it immensely!
Snatched
Goldie Hawn. An absolutely silly film but I laughed out loud on the plane of a daughter taking her mother to Columbia and getting snatched. It reminded me of Bridesmaids with Amy Schumer who plays deadpan. Dialogue reminded me so much of Yael and me.
Heat and Dust, 1962
Julie Chistie. What a Masterpiece of a bygone era, when real films were made that possessed character and plot and development and dialogue and class. How far we have dummied down to what is today called film. This was a rare experience and an unforgettable one. The old time epic of mammoth proportion.
Wind River
"Wind River is a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past (Jeremy Renner) to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American Reservation in the hopes of solving her mysterious death. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Hell or High Water), Wind River also stars Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Julia Jones, Kelsey Asbille and James Jordan." This was a phenomenal film for its genre and that is because of Jeremy Renner. The movie was riveting and there was an honesty, the dialogue had meaning and substance even though it was succinct. There was a nice flow and the backdrop of Wyoming was gorgeous. I loved it as hard as it was to feel it from the level that the actors were giving of themselves. It was a marvelous well done and fine piece of film work.
The Mountain Between Us
Kate Wislet. Idris Elba. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad. Even though he wanted to make it a color-blind film, to me, it never succeeded. I never forget that Idris, who played the love object, was black. It did become a black/white issue. It did not work for me. It even had the stereotype black man making love. I liked how the director explained why she worked in a dark room.
The movie sagged at times, dragged at others, the love story seemed to be the object of the film and the rescue part, a backdrop from which they fell in love. It was a talky talky film. I wasn't crazy about it. For me, there was something missing.
Lucky
"The warm dramatic comedy Lucky follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. Having out lived and out smoked all of his contemporaries, the fiercely independent Lucky (Harry Dean Stanton) finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration, leading towards that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment. Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch's directorial debut is at once a love letter to the life and career of Stanton (Alien, Repo Man, Pretty in Pink, Paris, Texas) as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality and human connection. Also starring David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Skerritt and Beth Grant." This poignant metaphorical imagery film on death and the end of life played out with exquisite precision and sensitivity by Stanton, I felt was a lyrical and lovely piece of film work. It revealed relationships and respect and dialogue by great character actors and at times, I felt as if I could cry.
The Florida Project
"The Florida Project is one of this year’s best films, a remarkable slice of life set in and around a motel on the fringes of Orlando, Florida. Here, little kids with no adult supervision find ways to amuse themselves day after day. While their parents struggle to survive and pay the rent, they always find things to occupy themselves, whether it’s admiring a rainbow, encountering farm animals, or begging strangers for money to buy ice cream. Some of their mischief gets out of hand, but there are few if any repercussions in their insular world.
Filmmaker Sean Baker caused a sensation with his last feature, Tangerine (2015), a compelling fly-on-the-wall narrative that was shot entirely on iPhones. His new movie may have more money behind it but retains an extraordinary feeling of reality, chronicled by an invisible onlooker. The Florida Project is a deeply emotional film anchored by the great Willem Dafoe as the manager of a purple-colored motel who pretends not to care about his tenants (especially the children) although he actually does. His attachments cause him nothing but grief, yet he just can’t help himself.
Baker captures the wide-eyed innocence of childhood, focusing on a precocious six-year-old girl named Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) who has no sense of right and wrong. No wonder: her single mother (Bria Vinaite) is rude and crude, a scam artist and habitual liar who will do just about anything to scrape together enough money to get by. Moonee has seen and heard things no child should be exposed to, but this is the only life she’s ever known.
The Florida Project may have occasional lulls but somehow they add to the feeling of verisimilitude, as one day melts into the next and the characters we get to know live out their lives. The screenplay by Baker and Chris Bergoch takes us on a roller-coaster of highs and lows. Some of the vignettes are surprisingly moving and the film builds to an emotional crescendo that I found shattering.
If ever there were a sleeper deserving of wide recognition, this is it. And how can I not admire a film that, in the closing credits, acknowledges its debt to the Our Gang comedies and their creators, including Spanky McFarland. Those Little Rascals never explored the R-rated world depicted here, but there is a definite connection…and little Brooklynn Prince would have been right at home alongside Spanky." I agree with everything above. Brooklyn Prince was extraordinary. It was a remarkable, deeply disturbing class oriented film, where there is no safety net, or familial relationships, or husbands or men in the life of, - it is basic human survival in its most brutal form.
Marshall
An excellent court room drama of the beginnings of Thurgood Marshall and his little known relationship with Sam Friedman, a Jewish lawyer, who defended a NAACP case of a black man accused of raping a wealthy white woman. It was well cast except the Jewish man looked like supreme nerd and sexless and a walking brain. Why did they have to cast such a nerdy ugly man when the real life Sam Friedman was a good looking man? This was my only complaint. But the film was well done and it kept my interest.
The Meyerowitz Stories
Grudges and rivalries abound as three adult siblings (Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Elizabeth Marvel) converge in New York to contend with their prickly artist father (Dustin Hoffman)—and his fading legacy—in this emotional and comic intergenerational story of an estranged family reunion. Emma Thompson and Grace Van Patten co-star. Written and directed by Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, Mistress America). I thought it was pretentious, boring, over acted, with Thompson and her exaggerated New York accent, and Hoffman playing Hoffman, just an older version of The Graduate. The characters were stereotypical and tedious. Sandler was the best of all by far. To see him act, was worth watching the picture. LBJ
Woody Harrelson. Jennifer Jason Leigh. An old fashioned biopic film that is certainly made for my generation, with old fashioned dialogue and plot and character development. It was pondering and interesting, I was tired so did fall asleep for some of it. It captured Bobby Kennedy's hatred for LBJ and brash upstart cocky behavior. LBJ seemed more fumbling than I remember him but it also showed the political life without the cynicism and when people could work together in compromise and not take it all so personally. We have Obama to thank for this sea change.
Victoria & Abdul
"Director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Philomena) returns with Victoria & Abdul, the extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity. Co-starring Eddie Izzard, Adeel Akhtar and Michael Gambon. Screenplay by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), based on Shrabani Basu's best-selling biography."
I found this movie so politically correct that I wanted to scream. In real life, Adbul was an ugly man, and he served the role of a Rasputin type-of-character. Queen Victoria described herself perfectly. However, she was able to get these sycophants in young men who served her as a flirtation and that she was physically desirable in her fantasy. She was a miserable woman who cast off misery to those who got close to her. Everyone disappointed her. She wallowed in self-pity. My God - she was The Queen! In the movie, they tried to make everyone a racist and a cad and when told the Truth, that they were in the wrong. To me, the movie revealed a much more realistic film of The Queen then I have seen in a long time.
Goodbye Christopher Robin"Goodbye Christopher Robin gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children's author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston), whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie-the-Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie), and his nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), Christopher Robin and his family are swept up in the international success of the books—the enchanting tales bringing hope and comfort to England after the First World War. But with the eyes of the world on Christopher Robin, what will the cost be to the family? Directed by Simon Curtis (Woman in Gold, My Week with Marilyn)."
I found the film much finer than the reviews. It was poignant and sad and the beginning of how celebrity impacts families and children, often to devastating results. Fortunately, Christopher survived. Had he not, Milne would have been a tortured soul for the rest of his life. I thought it was remarkably well done. It made me cry.
LadyBird
"In Lady Bird, writer/director Greta Gerwig reveals herself to be a bold new cinematic voice with her directorial debut, excavating both the humor and pathos in the turbulent bond between a mother and her teenage daughter. Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird's father (Tracy Letts) loses his job. Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, amidst a rapidly shifting American economic landscape, Lady Bird is an affecting look at the relationships that shape us, the beliefs that define us, and the unmatched beauty of a place called home. Also starring Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Lois Smith. Marvelous dialogue. Wonderful sympathetic actors.
Mother was very real. Loved it.
Interlude in Prague
I saw this film on Mozart twice on the plane. I loved the music. I loved the character that played Mozart, not the silly man/child from Amadeus. The movie was quite relevant taking issue with all of the sexual harassment. It was so well down and stayed true to form in costume, plot, storyline and music!
Mudbound
"Set in the post-WWII South, Mudbound is an epic story of two families pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad. The film is about friendship, unacknowledged heritage and the unending struggle for and against the land. Newly transplanted from the quiet civility of Memphis, the McAllan family is underprepared and overly hopeful for Henry’s (Jason Clarke) grandiose farming dreams. Laura (Carey Mulligan) struggles to keep the faith in her husband’s losing venture, meanwhile, for Hap (Rob Morgan) and Florence Jackson (Mary J. Blige), whose families have worked the land for generations, every day is a losing venture as they struggle bravely to build some small dream of their own. The war upends both families’ plans as their returning loved ones, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) forge a fast, uneasy friendship that challenges them all. Directed and co-written by Dee Rees (Bessie, Pariah)." This was a very violent, yet realistic film of relationships of what I imagined them to be in the deep Mississippi Delta after the War. At moments, I had crushing grief in particular scenes with the black woman and equal white wife. They reminded me of Clevie. But the strain and hatred and pretense and cost of maintaining civility at all cost exacted a great price and terror between blacks and whites. A powerful and well done film.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
is a darkly comedic drama from writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand, Fargo) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated. Supporting cast includes Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Željko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones, Clarke Peters, Samara Weaving, John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage.
This was a dark and tough film. There was much violence, and yet humanity did exist in each violent character.
McDormand will be nominated for an Oscar Award for her performance as a woman whose daughter died and her grief and guilt was simply too much for any human or mother to take in without being destroyed. Her rage and anger was her only way to keep herself a live. It all became too much to cope with the unbearable guilt from her daughter's death. It was an outstanding movie but an awfully tough one to absorb. I also saw 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing. Everyone is raving about this film especially Frances McDormand. I found the film unloveable, violent, human interactions harsh, much rage and anger and aggression all bottled up and exploding on screen. I found her acting the same. Has she ever acted in any other kind of part and with any other gestures than with the familiar ticks and hardness? They are the same expressions in all of her roles. I think that this is how she must be in real life as she plays herself time and again. Where is the acting?
Loving Vincent
A new kind of animation film that was hand painted and took two years to complete. It was boring and I kept dozing off but I am glad that I saw it for the affects of the new technology.
Foxtrot
I know that neither one of you cared for the film, that you went into the film with your own perceptions of how the army and Israel would be portrayed, Leftist and Harsh. In this regard, the Director did not let you down. Foreign Film Entries from Israel can only be accepted if they present this world view point regarding Israel. Unless it is Holocaust material.
However, I felt the film was quite remarkable in so many ways. I have interviewed so many grieving Israeli families and I felt that the Director captured to a tee, from the knock on the door, to the explanations and order or funeral arrangements, to being prepared of how people may respond to this kind of devastating news. I thought it touched a grieving family brilliantly. Each family grieves in its own way and this was a successful, secular Tel Aviv family, that scorned community response and even family intrusion.
And, then the transition to the Check post. - the isolation and the fear and having to remain on high alert every single time that a car, with a possible enemy and explosion came by, had me tense and guarded as they must be. War is hell and mistakes happen but protocol must also be followed and cars cannot be cleared without authority. To me, the army has had all these situations and experiences in reality, why did they focus on the woman to check out. Suicide bombers come in all forms and shapes and attitudes. The army can trust NOBODY. I thought that this was well communicated.
Why do they have to have a check point here anyway? I thought that was well communicated.
I thought it caught how bored and young our Israeli soldiers are. How they have to make split decisions as all armies in the world do and that there are mistakes. This is war.
If the Arab had not been so cocky, as to drop his ID in the rain, forcing the Israeli to reach for it under the car, crawl on your knees Jew, (this was what was communicated by this act) the soldier would not have seen the dress hanging out of the door. The rest is fate. How one decision begets another and sometimes leads to tragedy and sometimes does not.
I kept wondering the purpose of the camel. The first time it was cute. The second time I was puzzled but then it all made sense by the third time.
I thought the beginning of the film, which is of the long Tel Sake road into no man’s land, was when he was killed and then the movie unfolded with the knock on the door. We are only led to understand that this was the finality of the film of how our soldier died, not the mistake from identification, but the destiny of Jonathan, because his father insisted upon his return. In this dangerous outpost, where lives hang on the head of a pin, if they fall into lethargy or lack of vigilance with every single car, it is ironic that he dies in such a stupid accident. But, it showed the purpose of the camel for the viewer.
The only part that was not real to me, was the tattooing. The army owns a soldiers body. He is not allowed and can be court marshaled and jailed if he does anything like this to his body while he is in service. So this was not believable. It is an iron clad army rule.
But, the thought, the pace, the unfolding of the story and the telling of the story, the acting, and the loss was nuanced and sensitive and painfully real. One had to be patient.
I also thought the conversations about the soldiers and the cartoon sexual drawings was also fresh material in film as this is all soldiers are thinking about, morning, noon and night. There was no whitewashing of the male mind.
Just my thoughts. To me, the politics were not the front burner of the film, but instead it was about the story.
This movie was so awful from the opening credits that we walked out. It stars Morgan Freeman, 75, Tommy Lee Jones, 73, Rene Russo in her late 60's. It was ridiculous and stupid and tedious and simply awful. It doesn't deserve any more time than this!
I, Tonya by Leonard Matlin
"If you’re still not convinced that Margot Robbie is more than just a beauty, I, Tonya should do the trick. Robbie helped produce the film and has given herself a superb, eye-opening vehicle as ice-skater Tonya Harding, who made worldwide headlines in the early 1990s when her husband arranged to injure Tonya’s Olympics competitor Nancy Kerrigan.
Screenwriter Steven Rogers and director Craig Gillespie have fashioned a faux interview framework for the narrative. That, and having characters address the camera, gives I, Tonya a snarky, “meta” quality that perfectly suits the material. They could have made a completely serious docudrama or turned the absurdities of the story into a farce. Instead, they drew the best from both worlds with felicitous results.
Tonya Harding never had it easy, as we learn early on when we meet her monstrous mother, brilliantly played by Allison Janney in an Oscar-caliber performance. Janney disappears into this frowzy character completely and is frighteningly convincing as a woman with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
The same is true for Sebastian Stan as Harding’s flagrantly abusive husband. It’s a key to Harding’s character that not only puts up with his violent behavior but returns to him more than once, admitting that she thinks these incidents are usually her fault. What a striking contrast to the confidence a champion athlete has to project.
This, too, is a crucial part of the story. Harding never came across as a wholesome, all-American girl—in her demeanor, dress, and choice of music—because she wasn’t. Her scores reflected the prejudices and expectations of the judges.
Robbie faces all of this head-on, in her modern-day interview segments and the flashbacks that dominate the film. She never asks for our sympathy, but at the same time refuses to take the blame for anything bad that happened during her career. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
I couldn’t take my eyes from the screen watching I, Tonya. This is solid, clever entertainment that reveals a true story I never knew, even though I remember those winter Olympics and the circus that it became. Cheers to everyone who collaborated on this first-rate film…and a deep bow to Margot Robbie." I loved this movie! It was entertaining and funny and then not-so-funny, with such bumbling idiots. Everyone was perfectly cast. I lived through this mega saga story, it dominated the Olympics, and to see the back story was especially entertaining.
Molly's Game
Superb film and very well acted. What I found interesting, with Jessica Chaftain's performance, is that she played her role sweetly, instead of the hard bitch that one would have expected from this film.
Downsizing
Matt Damon. This exhausting and tedious, ridiculous film, with no direction or knowing how to end it, I found exhausting and tiring. People choose to become 5 inches tall. They then live the same culture, without any imagination, as they did when they were fully grown. They gave up all liberty and freedom to their lives. It became moralistic and tiresome.
1945
One of the finest Holocaust films I have seen from Hungary.
The Shape of Water
Done by the Spanish Director of Pan's Labrinith, which I consider one of the great films, this film is an adult E.T. plagiarized story, with serious anti-Semitic Jewish and Israeli overtones, filled with extreme violence and torture. I love how she makes loves to a monster from the sea, who of course, is giving human qualities. It was boring at parts, over-wrought and over-dramatized in other parts and though the film has opened to rave reviews, I challenge this lemming critic condition of copying each other. I was looking at my watch far too many times wondering when it would be over.
The Darkest Hour
A beautiful profile, and extremely well done of Winston Churchill, during the 1940's, before America entered the world. They had to face the crisis of Dunkirk. It was only Churchill who had the courage and foresight to see the menace to the world by Hitler and to stand up to all the appeasers and anti-Semites in British government. There were some license to the Truth. In the Dunkirk film, they had an exhausted soldier who was simply too tired to read, to read out loud to the audience, one of the greatest speeches in war history. This time Churchill read his own words and they were majestic and inspiring.
Loveless
I am trying to remember this film.
I am trying to remember this film.
Wonder
A marvelous film with Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. It is bout a child who is called a freak because he looks like one. And, how he struggles and overcomes with his wonderful parents and sister, his handicap and becomes a winner at the end. I was simply wonderful and I cried so much.
A marvelous film with Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. It is bout a child who is called a freak because he looks like one. And, how he struggles and overcomes with his wonderful parents and sister, his handicap and becomes a winner at the end. I was simply wonderful and I cried so much.
