Category Archives: 2017

The Breadwinner

Leave a reply

The Breadwinner                             4 ½ stars

The Breadwinner has to be one of the most enthralling and fascinating animated films I have seen in quite a while.  It takes us into the world of Afghanistan during the time when the Taliban have taken control while focusing on one eleven year old girl and her family.  We live through the suffering that this family goes through as the young self-righteous soldiers of the Taliban inflict unimaginable cruelty on those who cannot defend themselves.  Parvana’s father is forced into prison for nothing more than matter of factly addressing a soldier.  When the family is left with no male adults the women are beaten for the crime of walking alone in public trying to buy food.  Parvana then cuts her hair and passes as a boy to go on a quest to free her father from jail.  The story is aided by the stories Parvana tells about a young man trying to save his village by confronting the monsters that have stolen their seeds for crops.  The movie is done with very expressive and colorful animation and treats its characters as very real and believable.  The Breadwinner is suitable for adults and children, though perhaps not for the very young because of the acts of cruelty portrayed.  The Breadwinner is done by the same studio that made The Secret of Kells and The Song of the Sea, two of the best animated films of the last several years.

Victoria & Abdul

Leave a reply

Victoria & Abdul                               3 stars

Victoria & Abdul brings actress Judi Dench and director Stephen Frears together again for the telling of the story of Queen Victoria, who in her later years develops an attachment to a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.  Abdul has been summoned from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee where he finds the old queen seeks to consult with him on a variety of matters and he becomes a teacher of sorts.  All of this is very troubling to the Queen’s staff and in particular, her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales.  They consider it demeaning that a man from a poor family of color could find his way to a position of honor among the royal family.  We are told that this is all based on a true story, but it is one that has gone largely untold. Presumably the family at the time had tried to keep it hidden.  The film is based on a book that was recently published.  Much of the film is done in a comic fashion as it finds comedy in how differently the cultures involved find one another.  Therefore, I have to wonder just how much of the story is true.  But putting all that aside, the film is still quite enjoyable and gives us two fine performances from Judy Dench and Ali Fazal.  Victoria & Abdul was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Costume Design and Best Make up.  Stephen Frears is a very prolific director in Hollywood having directed such outstanding works as Florence Foster Jenkins, Philomena, The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents and Dirty Pretty Things.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Leave a reply

Guardians of the Galaxy 2             4 stars

It has been four years since we heard from those heroes from the Marvel universe that includes Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Baby Groot.  Now they are back again in their heroic fashion to once again save the universe from its latest threat.  This time circumstances force them to ally with enemies Yondu and Nebula as they must find out the true nature of Peter’s family.  Now they must deal with Peter’s recently found true father, Ego who turns out to be a millions of years old celestial being who inhabits entire planets and has desires to control the entire galaxy.  The team must battle to put their internal differences aside while they do the usual, engage in a colorful, explosion filled conflict of mega proportions in long action filled sequences.  One of the best performances has to go to Michael Rooker as the enemy turned friend, Yondu, who upon being betrayed by his barbarian like gang, must join with the misfit Guardians.  The second installment of Guardians may have lost a bit of its sparkle, but still has plenty of heart with its soundtrack of seventies and eighties music that seems to inspire their leader, Peter.  I am sure we will soon be hearing about the next sequel, Guardians 3.

The Wife

Leave a reply

The Wife                              4 ½ stars

In what is sure to be one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year, The Wife, Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce star as a couple who have been married for nearly forty years who are about to face the greatest test of how solid their marriage is.  Joe Castleman (Pryce), a famed novelist has just been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature so he and his wife Joan (Close) are about to travel to Stockholm, Sweden to accept the award.  It will be on this trip, also with their son that everything about their marriage will come out in the open causing the full gamut of emotions to be released by these people.  Their son David has been doing some serious writing as well and is very troubled at not receiving the attention from his father that he thinks he deserves.  Flashbacks to the late fifties and sixties show us the early relationship between Joe and Joan, how he had an affair while married to his first wife and how he struggled as a writer at first but became more successful after being married to Joan.  As I watched Glenn Close’s reaction to events and the expressiveness of her face I felt I was viewing a true master of acting.  She will make you feel what the character is feeling.  The story is rather slow moving at first but is well written and I think it is safe to say there will be some Academy Award nominations for this film including Best Actress for Glenn Close (to add to her six previous nominations).

Kong: Skull Island

Leave a reply

Kong: Skull Island             2 ½ stars

Kong: Skull Island reimagines the classic Kong story with some significant revisions.  First instead of the setting being in the 30’s, this time it is set in the seventies right after America’s withdrawal from Vietnam. (Thus the anti-war references). Second, instead of being perhaps 30 feet tall, this Kong is the size of a skyscraper, thus eliminating any possibility of capturing the beast.  There are several spectacular action sequences that depend heavily on special effects that feature various giant creatures attacking and devouring various members of the cast while others devise clever means of surviving.  The scientists of this team are accompanied by a small army that seem to be equipped for all-out war until they meet the featured ape who easily dispatches everything the military can through at him.  The characters are mostly two dimensional other than John C. Reilly’s Hank, a soldier who has been left behind on Skull Island since the end of World War II.  Reilly gives the movie a much needed dose of comic release.  Other notable cast members are Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Shea Whigham.  Kong: Skull Island is mostly an updated version of Land of the Lost and not a great one at that.  Based on the end scene of the movie we can probably count on there being another in a series of these lost monster movies.

The Post

Leave a reply

The Post              5 stars

In my quest to see all Oscar nominated movies of last year I watched The Post, the Spielberg directed thriller drama about the Washington Post struggle to stay relevant in 1971 by reporting on the secrets revealed in the Pentagon Papers.  In this true story, the first woman major newspaper publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) and the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) must make the critical decisions about whether to publish the government secrets about the failures of the Vietnam War, risking the very future of the newspaper business.  This film was put together in near record time as the producers including Steven Spielberg wanted to make a movie that was very relevant to the relationship between Washington and the press of today.  The film pays great attention to detail and gets the feel of the newspaper business of the early seventies.  The newsrooms and printing press equipment are very authentic down to the metal desks and loud typewriters.  The drama brought to us by the acting skills of Streep and Hanks as well as the excellent supporting cast is compelling and will keep your attention throughout the movie’s run time.  The movie was written based on the memoirs of Graham, Bradlee and Daniel Ellsberg, thus it is very close to a representation of the true story.  It’s hard to imagine putting together a team of filmmakers more talented this this crew.  The Post may not have won best picture last year but it had to be in the running.  One interesting piece of trivia about the movie is that it took only nine months from putting the screenplay together until completion of the editing, which is close to a miracle in Hollywood.

Mudbound

Mudbound                         4 ½ stars

One of the most culturally relevant films of last year was Mudbound, written and directed by Dee Rees, takes of back to 1940’s Mississippi, where the Jim Crow laws are strictly enforced.  This story brings two families together, one white and one black as they each struggle against the odds to make a living farming in the Mississippi Delta, while dealing with the social norms of the time.  The McAllans (Jason Clarke and Carey Mulligan) just moved here after buying a farm they hope will fulfil their dreams.  The Jacksons are poor black tenants who work under them and are led by the father, strong and quiet Hap (Rob Morgan) and the mother, Florence (May J. Blige).  These families are of course very different, but must depend on each other to survive the realities of farm life.  At the same time the strong undercurrent of racism is always present and threatens to upend their world at any time.  Some of the most interesting moments are the scenes with younger brother Jamie McAllan and Hap’s son, Ronsel, both returned from World War II as war heroes as they share their stories of the war.  The title of the movie perfectly describes the conditions the families face as most of the farm scenes depict the dirty conditions these people face daily, there being no electricity or running water for these poor farmers.  Hollywood has seen plenty of movies portraying the deep roots of racism in the deep South, but Mudbound presents it in a dramatic fashion that keeps us interested throughout.  The movie is long at 2 hours and 15 minutes.  It was nominated for Academy Awards in Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay.

First Reformed

First Reformed                  4 stars

First Reformed has been described as a comeback for writer director Paul Schrader, who is known for writing Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ.  He has not produced any real notable films of late until First Reformed showed up earlier this year.  The film tells a dark story of Rev. Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke), an ill, alcoholic pastor of a small declining, but historic church who is facing a crisis of faith.  Toller is asked to counsel a troubled young man by the man’s wife (Amanda Seyfried) who happens to be pregnant with their first child.  The husband is an active environmentalist and is very troubled by the amount of pollution that the planet is seeing.  He may even be teetering on the edge of self destruction. Things take a dramatic turn for the worse and Toller sinks ever deeper into depression and his drinking.  This is all going on at the same time that a 250th anniversary of the church is being planned for the church which is subsidized by a nearby megachurch led by Rev. Jeffers (the comedian Cedric Kyles, aka Cedric the Entertainer).  These events serve as devices that drive the film to a very startling and intense conclusion.  The film has a very stark and slow moving style that is unlike most films from Hollywood.  One can see that the director’s religious background has a lot to do with the message being told.  Be forewarned.  Some parts of the film are disturbing, but it is certainly worth seeing if only as a means of discussing one’s own faith.  First Reformed is also greatly aided by the strong performances of all of its main stars, especially Ethan Hawke.  This is likely one of his best performances to date.

2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action

2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action       4 ½ stars

The Oscar Nominated Shorts, Live Action mainly deal with very serious subjects and have only a single comedy among them.  My favorite was “The Silent Child”, a film written by a deaf advocate who also acts in it, about a young deaf five-year-old girl who is neglected by her family who are too concerned with their own lives to learn sign language and to communicate with their daughter.  The social worker succeeds in drawing her out of her shell in spite of the oblivious family.  Another that I really liked was “Watu Wote”, from Germany, which concerns an actual event near the Kenya/Somalia border where a busload of poor travelers were attacked by Muslim extremists.  At great risk to themselves, the Muslim passengers protected the Christian passengers from being killed by the terrorists.  The film was terrifying and uplifting in how events transpire.  The Oscar Nominated Shorts may still be in theaters so you have a chance to see them.

2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated

2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated         4 stars

The Oscar Nominated Shorts in Animation this year while good, seem to have a departure from most years as there is not the level of humor that we usually get.  My personal favorite is the entry from the UK, “Revolting Rhymes”, based on Roald Dahl’s adaptation of classic fairy tales into a story of crime and vengeance.  We find Red Riding Hood teaming up with Snow White to take on the evil queen, the big bad wolves and the greedy financier pigs (of The Three Pigs).  It’s narrated by the Big Bad Wolf himself and really keeps us guessing about where the story is headed.  Also interesting is a French entry called “Garden Party” a dialogue free scene of a bullet riddled mansion that is being taken over by local frogs and toads.  This one may not be suitable for young viewers!