Strange Days on the Planet 2005

     Around the globe scientists are racing to solve a series of mysteries.  Unsettling transformations are sweeping across the planet and clue by clue the investigators are assembling a new picture of Earth.  They are discovering things that are seemingly disparate events but they are connected.  Crumbling houses in New Orleans are linked to voracious creatures from southern China.  Vanishing forests in Yellowstone are linked to the disappearance of wolves.  An asthma epidemic in the Caribbean is linked to dust storms in Africa.  Scientists suspect we have entered a time of global change that is faster than any human being has ever witnessed?  

     Where are we headed?  What can we do to alter this course of events?  National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth premiered in Spring 2005 on PBS.  It explores these questions drawing upon research being generated by a new discipline, Earth System Science (ESS).  This series aims to create an innovative type of environmental awareness by the revealing of a cause and effect.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

Note:  4 hours, documentary released 4/26/2005 narrated by Edward Norton, Studio National Geographic Video, 2 discs.

Internet Movie Database 7.6* out of 10* with 198 reviews, Amazon 3.9* out of 5* with 26 ratings, netflix.com 3 1/2* of 5*.

 

Satin Rouge 2002

      This film is also known as Red Satin.  After the death of her husband, Lilia's life revolves solely around her teenage daughter Salma.  Before her husband’s death, Lilia was a seamstress.  While looking for Salma late one night, Lilia comes by a belly dance cabaret.  Though initially reserved and taken aback by the culture of this place, Lilia gets consistently drawn back to it.  She befriends one of the belly dancers and is encouraged to dance for the audience.  Lilia also starts a romance with one of the cabaret's musicians.  The women don’t know that he is romancing both Lilia and Salma??

     Lilia is very conservative at the beginning of this film.  This is how she has lived her life.  Usually she doesn’t leave her home at night ever.  She has discovered belly dancing and she loves the sparkly outfits.  From her first performance and onward you can see that she loves the dancing.  Her joy is passed on to her audience.  Over time, Lilia phases out her former friends and she gains entirely different new friends.  This is a patient film and we follow along with the significant  transformations in Lilia’s life.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

100 min, Drama directed and written by Raja Amari with Hiam Abbass, Hend El Fahem, Lassad Aroms, Dalah Daldoul,  Maher Kamoun, Monia Hichri, Fouzia Badr, Nadra Lamloum, Abou Moez El Fazaa, Salah Miled,Mohamed Sayari.

Note:  Imdb 6.7* out of 10* with 823 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 83% with 47 critic reviews 71% with 500+ audience scores, Metacritic 73 out of 100 with 21 critic reviews 5.4 out of 10 with 5 user scores, Letterboxd 3.3* out of 5*, Austin. chronicle/events/film/2002-10-25/14/1816/ 3* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Tunisia and France, the languages are Arabic and French.  The American opening weekend gross was $18,880 on 25 August 2002.  The cumulative Worldwide Gross was $3,493,730.

Adam 2009

     Soon after moving in, Beth a brainy and beautiful writer damaged from a past relationship encounters Adam.  He is handsome but odd?  He is a man in the downstairs apartment whose awkwardness is perplexing?  Beth and Adam's ultimate connection leads to a tricky relationship that exemplifies something universal.  Truly reaching another person means bravely stretching into uncomfortable territory but the resulting shake-up can be liberating.

     Despite the marketing campaign portraying this film as a comedy this is romance and drama film.  It is about an unusual but deeply compassionate relationship between a man with a high-functioning form of autism and his new neighbor.  There are frank discussions about sex, because the man's condition means he always says exactly what he thinks. This can be about sensitive matters.  Also, some characters are perplexed by Adam's autism and they are sometimes actually hostile.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

99 min, Directed and written by Max Mayer with Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Frankie Faison, Haviland Morris, Mike Hodge, John Rothman, Steffany Huckaby, Maddie Corman, Karina Arroyave, Amy Irving, Peter O’Hara.

Note:  Imdb 4.2* out of 10* with 34K ratings, Metacritic 56 out of 100 with 27 critic reviews 8 out of 10 with 59 user scores, Rotten Tomatoes 66% with 135 critic reviews 72% with 10,000+ audience scores, Roger Ebert 2 1/2*, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Cath Clarke, Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 13+, 3* out of 5*, 1* drinking, drugs & smoking and violence, 3* positive messages, role models, sex.  Letterboxed 3.3* out of 5* with 26 reviews.

Special Note:  The chief executive officer of Halloran in the letter regarding Adam's interview is named Tamar Ganish.  The film's production designer is Tamar Gadish?  Both leading actors use American accents.

Mistakes:  When Beth has her picture hanging up inside Adam's closet, he turns around to look at her and the clock next to Beth says 10:40.  Then Adam looks at the picture again in confusion and then looks at Beth again a few seconds later and the clock next to Beth then reads 10:39.  When Beth's father is talking to her on the couch one on one, he calls her "Bethany."  Later in the movie when Adam opens the package with the book she has written, her name is listed as Elizabeth?  In response to Beth's query about what "10 to the minus 39th power" means, Adam states that it is the number represented by a decimal point followed by 39 zeros followed by a "1".  Actually, it is the number represented by a decimal point followed by 38 zeros followed by a "1". 

American Son 2008

     This film is an intimate look into the heart and mind of an American soldier.  It is a riveting urban drama that captivated audiences at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.  What would you do if you had just four days to say goodbye to everyone who was important to you?  Nineteen year old Mike Holland (Nick Cannon) has 96 hours to make peace with his friends and family and maybe even begin a new relationship on the eve of his deployment to Iraq.  There is a glimpse of the emotional battlefield our troops navigate as they leave America's streets.  They are away from everything that is familiar and are there to fight in a completely different world.  This is a gripping story that rises above politics and centers on the personal challenges of a tough young man with an uncertain future.  It's a riveting film you won't soon forget.

     This is a moving film from the beginning to the end.  This young marine visits home for Thanksgiving before setting off to serve in Iraq.  The scenes are about the four days he is home and they touch on his troubled home life, friends and new found love.  It is easy to become invested in Mike from the beginning to the end with this film.  Of course, in the beginning life seems to be good for Mike but that all changes quickly!!  This movie was filmed in just 20 days!  2 1/2* (This movie is just so-so) 

96 min Drama directed by Neil Abramson with Nick Cannon, Matt Sigloch, Dotan Baer, Justin Diedolf, Renzo Fidani, Robert T. Parker, Melonie Diaz, Gaby Medina, Matt O’Leary, Tom Sizemore, Bryan Marsh, Matt Sigloch, Wade Harlan.

Note:  Imdb 5.7* out of 10* with 807 ratings, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 60 ratings, Rotten Tomatoes 100% with 13 critic reviews, 51% audience scores with 500+ ratings, Letterboxd 3* out of 5*, Metacritic 34 out of 100 with 7 critic reviews, 6.3 out of 10 with 22 user scores. 

Downloading Nancy 2008

     When Albert Stockwell (Rufus Sewell) comes home from work one day, he finds a note from his wife of 15 years.  Nancy (Maria Bello) says she has gone to see friends.  After waiting several days, Albert realizes that his wife is missing? Nancy has met her salvation on the Internet in the form of Louis Farley (Jason Patric).  Nancy and Louis are both wounded souls and they take comfort in one another through e-mails, pictures and promises of perverse sexual encounters. Nancy has finally found the one and only thing that can liberate her from the pain in her life!!  While she pursues the freedom that she feels she believes it will only come with ultimate liberation.  Albert is left behind to put the pieces together and try to salvage what is left.

     Nancy (a sallow, up-for-three-days-looking Maria Bello) is on a final tour of pleasures to a gaming arcade of the kind beloved in her youth.  This is a good indication of the weightiness in store.  It’s also Renck’s most effective stab at creating genuine sympathy for an utterly broken main character.  It comes when Nancy’s palpable sadness is already resonating.  But her other more unpalatable characteristics as a maniacally self-involved, juvenile pain fetishist and attention junkie have yet to be teased out?  1 1/2* (I really did not like this movie)

96 min, Drama directed by Johan Renck with Josh Strait, Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell, Michael Nyqvist, Amy Brenneman, David Lawrence Brown, Kimberly Elek 

Note:  Amazon 3.6* out of 5* with 69 ratings, Slant Magazine 2* out of 4* Ryan Stewart, Rotten Tomatoes 19% with 32 critic reviews 43% with 5000+ audience scores, Metacritic 19 out of 100 with 11 critic reviews 7.5 out of 10 with 8 user scores, Letterboxd 2.8* out of 5*.  

Special Note:  Originally, Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Radha Mitchell and Stellan Skarsgard were attached to this project.  Set to start filming in June 2005 but production was delayed due to Holly Hunter's pregnancy.  Start date was moved to June 2006 but the schedule fell apart and Holly Hunter abandoned the project.  Soundtrack for the U.S. trailer entitled "Bipolar Darts" composed and performed by Marion Dean.

Motherhood 2009

      Eliza Kendall Welch is the mother of, Clara and Lucas.  She lives with her husband Avery McKendrik in a Manhattan apartment.  Today is May 25th and it is Clara's 6th birthday.  Eliza has has to make arrangements for a party and also attend to day-to-day chores.  This includes Blogging and entering an online contest ‘Motherhood’.  Plus, looking after her invalid elderly neighbor and a dog. Things will slowly get out of hand after her car gets towed because of a film shooting.  The tire on her bike gets punctured and she alienates herself from her friend, Sheila.  Clara’s name is misspelled on her cake?  Avery refuses to answer his cell-phone.  After being assisted by a delivery man named Nikesh plus he finds her attractive, she decides she has had enough and she is not going home?

     This movie is about the details of what a mother of two has to do in a day. Housework, organizing her daughter's birthday party, shopping and writing.  The events seem ordinary but it successfully highlights the stress of being a mother and a housewife.  It's a job that has no off office hours, no breaks and no days off.  The demands and difficulties of their roles are often underestimated and under appreciated.  It reminds us that people need encouragement and acknowledgment to survive a mundane routine.  It also reminds us not to take love or family for granted.

     This film is not as bad as the ratings suggest.  It's about a frustrated mother who's trying to continue her career as a writer.  She scoffs at the mother on the playground who encourages her daughter to behave nicely.  She leaves dog poop on the ground without picking it up.  She doesn't buckle her son in his carseat.  She writes about a friend's personal moment on her blog using real names.  She causes a traffic jam by leaving her car in the middle of the road.  Then she sulks over her car getting towed and this is entirely her fault?  There's something in this mess!!  Uma Thurman delivers a good performance but the voice over at the end isn't as poignant as it should be.  It also wants to be Bad Moms to a certain degree but that movie hadn't been made yet, so it couldn't be used to illuminate the path for writer/director Katherine Dieckmann.

     This Uma Thurman drama offers a fairly unvarnished look at parenthood and it will appeal much more to moms and dads.  They will be able to relate to the subject matter easier than to their kids.  Teens who do opt in will find some humor in the movie's honesty about the challenges and hassles of having children.  But younger kids may be put off by that same frankness.  The main characters clearly love their families even if they do sometimes yell at each other, swear and make other mistakes.  3* (This movie is OK)

90 min, Comedy directed and written by Katherine Dieckmann with Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver, David and Matthew Schallipp, Daisy Tahan, Alice Drummond, Stephanie Szostak, Celina Vignaud, Dale Soules.

Note:  Imdb 4.6* out of 10* with 4,392 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 20% with 51 critic reviews 16% with 2,500+ audience scores, Letterboxd 2.3* out of 5*, Roger Ebert 2*, Metacritic 34 out of 100 with 15 critic reviews 7.3 out of 10 with 14 user scores, Commonsense Media S. Jhoana Robledo 3* out of 5*, age 15+, 1* positive role models, violence, drinking, drugs & smoking, 3* positive messages, language, sex. 

Special Note:  This film grossed $100,000 in the USA in 2009 and in its UK opening weekend took a total of £88 equating to about 11 tickets sold? Allegedly making this the lowest grossing film ever released in the UK.

Mistakes:  At around 1hr 22 minutes when Clara is telling Eliza that it's raining outside, she replies with "all right" but she is not saying the words?  Eliza refers to Pylon as "The Pylons".

Amelia 2009

     This movie is based on a novel written by Susan Butler and Mary S. Lovell.  Amelia Earhart is a Kansas girl and she discovers the thrill of aviation at age 23. Within 12 years she has progressed to winning the Distinguished Flying Cross.  This award is for being the first woman to pilot a plane solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  At age 39, she sets out on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.  This adventure catapults her into aviation myth.

     The movie shows Amelia Earhart finishing third in the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Women's Air Derby in 1929 but doesn't explain why.  Earhart and her friend Ruth Nichols were tied for first at the last stop before the final leg.  Nichols took off right before Earhart but her plane clipped a tractor on the runway and flipped over.  Instead of taking off, Earhart ran to Nichols's plane to drag her to safety.  After Earhart was sure that Nichols was not seriously hurt, she took off for Cleveland and finished third.  Women in the Wind (1939) is based on the same air race and it features a plot loosely inspired by this incident.

     This biopic about iconic female pilot Amelia Earhart (played by Oscar winner Hilary Swank) has a strong female role model for preteen girls and older.  The film addresses Earhart's tumultuous personal life (including issues related to fidelity and fame) it also offers empowering messages throughout the film.  Earhart is portrayed as a true champion of a woman's right to take flight and “be free.”  Expect some kissing and underwear-clad cuddling, an affair, a fair bit of smoking (accurate for era), some social drinking and a little salty language.

111 min Adventure directed by Mira Nair and written by Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton with Hilary Seank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Joe Anderson, Cherry Jones, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Abrams, Dylan Roberts, Scott Yaphe, Tomm Fairfoot, Ryann Shane, William Cuddy, Sarah Kitz.

Note:  Imdb 5.*8 out of 10* with 12,165 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 20% with 166 critic reviews 31% with 50,000 audience scores, Metacritic 37 out of 100 with 34 critic reviews 5.4 out of 10 with 36 user scores, Roger Ebert 3*, Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo 3* out of 5*, age 11+, 1* violence, 2* sex & language, 3* role models, positive messages and drinking, drugs & smoking.  4* (I really liked this movie)

Special Note:  The 1927 Packard 7 Passenger used in the movie was actually Charles Lindbergh's car.  It was given to him by the mayor of New York, Jimmie Walker, after his direct non-stop flight from New York to Paris.  The chauffeur in the movie is the owner of the car from RM Classic Cars of Blenheim.  Gene Vidal (played by Ewan McGregor) was widely assumed to have had a romantic relationship with Amelia as depicted in this movie.  They had one child, Gore Vidal (played by William Cuddy).  Gore eventually grew up to become quite a celebrity himself as a controversial but successful author, screenwriter and political activist. 

Mistakes:  Close ups of Amelia Earhart’s watch show it is a Quartz movement with second hand increments once each second.  This is a technology not available until around 1970.  George Palmer Putnam and Amelia Earhart are listening to Moonglow on the radio in 1928. This song was recorded in 1934.  In the ticker-tape scene, the cameramen are using blue-tinted flashbulbs?  These are more recent and intended for color films.  When Earhart is signing the Lucky Strike endorsement, George hands her what appears to be either a ball point pen or a mechanical pencil?  Ball point pens were not in common use until the late 1930's.  If this was a pencil, contracts would never be signed in pencil? 

Agata and the Storm 2004

     In Genoa, Agata runs her bookstore and without meaning to she causes light bulbs and appliances to burn out.  At the same time that a younger man declares his attraction to her, her brother Gustav a morose architect, a distant husband and an indifferent father, discovers that he was adopted and has a half-brother in the Po Valley.  Causing Agata's great pain, she sees her young man with another woman plus Gustav cuts himself off from her and from his wife and son.  Agata goes to the Po Valley, meets Gustav's brother and the brother's wife and tries to reconnect by letting life wash over her.  Wisdom comes from traditional Chinese medicine and from good literature.

      This Italian movie is a quirky film about the life changing events that happen between two families.  A man finds out he has a different mother than the mother he has known all his life!!  This revelation causes him to make a big turn around in his life.  In order to get to know his new relatives he must also deal with the relatives he thought were his relatives.  This new event leads to one big family that is far from normal?  Agata is his sister and she is a single woman running a book store.  She has a much younger man say he's in love with her.  This is a BIG problem because this man is married.  Also Agata has an unusual problem with light bulbs?  When she is close to a light bulb it blows out??  This film is a rather novel approach to a comedy with many characters.  There is a lot of fun for  viewers.  2 1/2* (some viewers really like this movie but others feel it is just so so)

125 min, comedy directed by Silvio Soldini with Licia Maglietta, Giuseppe Battiston, Emilio Solfrizzi, Mariana Massironi,Claudio Santamaria, Giselda Volodi, Monica Nappo, Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, Carla Astolfi, Elena Nicastro, Remo Remotti, Andrea Gussoni, Mauro Marino, Silvana Bosi, Carlo Luca De Ruggieri.

Note:  Imbd 6.5* out of 10* with 1174 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 68% with 500+ audience scores, Fandango 68% audience score, Amazon 3.8* out of 5* with 30 ratings, Letterboxd 3.2* out of 5* with 3.2*. 

Adam Resurrected 2008

      This film is based on a novel by Yoram Kaniuk.  Adam Stein is a charismatic patient at a mental institution for Holocaust survivors in Israel.  The year is 1961, Adam reads minds and confounds his doctors lead by Nathan Gross.  Before the war in Berlin, Adam was an entertainer.  He did acts as a cabaret impresario, circus owner, magician and musician.  He was loved by audiences and Nazis alike until he found himself in a concentration camp confronted by Commandant Klein.  Adam survives the camp by becoming the Commandant's “dog?”  He entertained Klein while his wife and daughter were sent off to die.  Years later he is at the Institute.  One day, Adam smells something and he hears a sound?  "Who brought a dog in here?" he asks Gross.  Gross denies there is a dog but Adam finds him.  He is a young boy raised in a basement on a chain.  Adam and the boy see and recognize each other as dogs and their journey together begins.  This is the story of a man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy.

     When the young boy arrives at the institute, Stein’s unexamined past can no longer remain in the past.  The boy is both an unwelcome reminder of his own prior debasement and an opportunity at present redemption.  At first, Stein is intent on keeping the boy locked in his feral state.  Then Stein becomes determined to help him transcend it.  He insists that the boy (and by extension himself) is “not a dog but he’s a man.”  While this seems unfairly contrived, it provides the structural means to tie the two historical time periods together.  From the first glimpse of the boy cowering in his cell with a bag with two eye slits draped over his head, to shots of Stein dragging the nearly naked kid around on all fours, a leash cruelly attached to his neck, Stein sees a series of images that suggest mankind’s possibility for debasement, even if the cause of the boy’s doglike regression remains unexplained.  Neatly rhyming with the crisp black-and-white shots from the camp segments this imagery evokes not only the horror but the essential absurdity of mass acts of inhumanity.  2 1/2* (This movie is so-so)

106 min, Drama directed by Paul Schrader and written by Noah Stollman with Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Ayelet Zurer, Hana Lasio, Joachim Krol, Evgenia Dodina, Tudor Rapiteanu, Veronica Ferres, Iran Alterman, Juliane Kohler, Dror Keren Shmuel Edelman, Yorma Toledano, Miki Leon.

Note:  Imdb 6.2* out of 10* with 3921 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 35% with 37 critic reviews 44% with 500+ audience scores, Slant Magazine 2 1/2* out of 4* Andrew Schenker, Metacritic 588 out of 100 with 8 critic reviews, Letterboxd 2.9* out of 5*, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 143 reviews

Special Note:  The lines read at the beginning by Jeff Goldblum are a translation from the nineteenth century German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine's "In Der Fremde" (In Exile).  Heine was an exile and he spent his last years in Paris.  Moni Moshonov was cast as Arthur but he had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict.  He was replaced by comedian-actor Idan Alterman. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975

       This film is based on a novel written by Ken Kesey.  McMurphy has a criminal past and has once again gotten himself into trouble and he is sentenced by the court.  To escape labor duties in prison, McMurphy pleads insanity and is sent to a ward for the mentally unstable.  Once here, McMurphy both endures and stands witness to the abuse and degradation of the oppressive Nurse Ratched!  She gains superiority and power through the flaws of the other inmates.  McMurphy and the other inmates band together to make a rebellious stance against the atrocious Nurse.     

     This is an adult drama laced with humor but it deals with life-and-death issues.  The setting is in a hospital psychiatric ward.  Intense situations alternate with comic moments.  Underlying all the comic moments are the weighty topics of tyranny, sacrifice and the fragility of the human mind.  There are scenes of sustained cruelty, forcible restraint of mental patients, fighting and two deaths (including a suicide).  Language is strong throughout and there are a multitude of expressions used as slurs regarding race and gender.  Characters smoke constantly, they drink and get drunk in one out-of-control party sequence.  Moderate crude sex references, some brief sexualized nudity, violence and gore.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie and I felt sorry for McMurphy)

     

133 min Drama directed by Milos Forman and written by Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman, Ken Kesey and Dale Wasserman with Jack Nicholson, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, Dean R. Brooks, Alonzo Brown, Scatman Crotheres, Mwako Cumbuka, Danny DeVito, William Duell, Jospi Elic, Lan Fendors, Louise Fletcher, Nathan George, Ken Kenny, Mel Lambert, Sydney Lassick.

Note:  Imdb 8.7* out of 10* with 932,781 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 94% with 83 critic reviews 96% with 250,000+ audience scores, Roger Ebert 4*, reelreviews.net 3 1/2* James Berardinelli, Letterboxd 4.3* out of 5* with 4.8K fans, Amazon 5* with 335 reviews, Common Sense Media Carly Kocurek, 5*, age 16+, 2* sex and positive role models, 3* positive messages and drinking, drugs & smoking, 4* violence, 5* language, The Guardian 5* Peter Bradshaw.   

Special Note:  Many of the extras were authentic mental patients.  Will Sampson  (Chief Bromden) was a Park Ranger in Oregon near where the movie was filmed. He was selected for a part because he was the only Native American the casting department could find who matched his character's incredible size.  In later interviews, Louise Fletcher said that she found ways to make her character human yet still remain unsympathetic.  Ultimately she decided that Nurse Ratched actually did care about the patients and she felt she was doing what was best for them?Ultimately, she was misguided and drunk on her own power!!

Mistakes:  The Monopoly game has plastic houses and hotels, in 1963 they would still be made of wood.  After McMurphy hijacks the bus and is driving through town, there are some 1970s automobiles, including a Plymouth Duster, Chevy Nova and a store with lots of color TVs in the window.  The movie is set in 1963, according to the World Series broadcast.  During their road trip on the bus, they pass a "DUCK XING" road sign.  Those signs did not exist in 1963.  Just before McMurphy climbs over the fence to hide in the bus, what looks to be a Ford Pinto can be seen in the hospital parking lot.

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart 1985

      In San Francisco California, an immigrant widow welcomes the new year with some unhappiness.  She is sixty-two years old now and she wants to make a trip to China.  She wants to pay her last respects to her ancestors.  A fortune teller has told her this is the year she will die?  Her daughter, Geraldine is still unmarried.  Geraldine does have a boyfriend but she's not sure she's ready for marriage?  Anyway, her boyfriend lives in Los Angeles.  Geraldine doesn't want to leave her mother alone in her declining years.  Mrs. Tan's cheerful brother-in-law tries to help them out.  Is there any solution that will enable Mrs. Tan to hold onto her culturally influenced and deep-seated hopes.  But will these hopes suffocate Geraldine?

     Director Wayne Wang doesn’t explain very much in this film.  He takes his own time and that can be rather measured.  Quiet is the order of the day.  The emotion that “Dim Sum” taps is profound.  Its pull is both distinctly Chinese and utterly universal.  The are the complicated feelings of obligation, guilt and the duty of a concerned child for his or her parent.  Mrs. Tam has been given a cutoff date for her life and she believes the message to be true.  The first thing and the most important thing for her is to plan a last trip back to China.  She must pay her final respects and portion out the family treasures.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

88 min, Comedy directed by Wayne Wang and written by Terrel Seltzer with Laureen Chew, Kim Chew, Victor Wong, Ida F.O. Chung, Cora Miao, John Nishio, Amy Hill, Keith Choy, Mary Chew, Nora Lee, Joan Chen, Rita Yee, George Woo, Elsa Cruz Pearson.

Note:  Imdb 6.5* out of 10* with 255 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 88% with 8 critic reviews 52% with 100+ audience scores, Letterboxd 3.4* out of 5*, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 3.7* out of 5* with 11 ratings. 

Special Note:   Mark Dacascos filmed a scene with Joan Chen but the scene was deleted.  PBS edited two minutes from this film for its 1987 network television premiere?

Bright Star 2009

      It is 1818 in Hampstead Village on the outskirts of London.  Poet Charles Brown lives in half of a house and the Dilkes family lives in the other half.  Because of an association with the Dilkes, the fatherless Brawne family knows Mr. Brown.  Mr. Brown and the Brawne's eldest daughter Fanny don't like each other?  She thinks he is arrogant and rude!!  He thinks she is a pretentious flirt?  She only knows how to sew but she does that very well.  She makes all her own fashionable clothes.  She also voices opinions on subjects that she knows nothing about?  Insecure struggling poet John Keats comes to live with his friend Mr. Brown.  Miss Brawne and Mr. Keats have a mutual attraction to each other.  Their relationship is  developing slowly.  The reason for slowness is that Mr. Brown does whatever he can to keep them apart?  Other obstacles also facing the couple include their eventual overwhelming passion for each other.  It is clouding their view of what the other person does.  Plus, there is Mr. Keats' struggling career and it offers him very little in the way of monetary gain!! 

     This moving period romance is tame on the surface and there's almost no violence, sex, strong language or other iffy content.  But, it has an undercurrent of sexual longing fueled by social barriers that complicate the characters' ability to be with the people they love.  Though the story is told with a great deal of grace, it does have a bit of grit.  First, there's the consumption illness that finally claims poet John Keats.  Its progression is delicately but truthfully depicted.  Also, Keats' best friend is dismissive of those with no interest in poetry.  That refers to Fanny, she is passionate about sewing instead.  There's some discussion about Fanny's virginity but the conversations are oblique.  There is only kissing and hand-holding shown on screen.  3* (I liked this movie)

119 min Biography directed and written by Jan Campion with Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox, Edie Martin, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Claudie Blakley, Gerard Monaco, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Samuel Roukin, Amanda Hale, Lucinda Raikes, Samuel Barnett, Johnathan Aris.

Note:  Imdb 6.9* out of 1* with 14,362 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 82% with 177 critic reviews 68% with 10,000+ audience scores, Metacritic 81 out of 100 with 34 critic reviews 7.2 out of 10 with 92 user scores, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, The Guardian 5* Peter Bradshaw, Commonsense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 12+, 4* out of 5*, 1* language, drinking, drugs & smoking, 2* sex, 3* positive messages, positive role models, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 655 reviews.

Special Note:  John Keats' poems used in the film are:  Endymion, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be, The Eve of St Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Bright Star.  This film had a shooting for one day in Rome.  Keats' funeral procession was the last scene to be filmed and the only scene of the film not shot in the UK.  This exterior location, in Piazza di Spagna, is the actual residence Keats stayed and where he died.  It now houses the Keats - Shelley House museum.  The main star of the film, Ben Whishaw met his husband, composer Mark Bradshaw while both were working on this film.  They were civilly married in 2012.  The Hyde House and Estate in Hyde Bedfordshire substituted for the Keats House in Hampstead.  Director Jane Campion decided that the Keats House (also known as Wentworth Place) was too small and "a little bit too fusty".

Mistakes:  When Abigail shows off her new baby to the Brawne family, Brown goes to talk to Fanny in the next room.  Abigail comes in holding her baby and the baby's head is rested in the crook of her arm.  In the next shot when she turns and leaves, the baby is moved so the baby's head is on the opposite side of her.  When Keats looks out his window at Fanny, she walks to the window, pulls out a letter from her dress and holds it to the window.  In the next shot, she pulls the letter from her dress again?  When Severn drinks from his teacup, he spills tea into his saucer. In the next shot, the same sequence is unintentionally repeated from a different angle.

Whip It! 2009

     This film is based on a novel written by Shauna Cross.  In a town near Austin Texas, Bliss Cavendar's strong-willed mother believes that Bliss at the age of 17 can win beauty pageants.  She also believes that winning is the key to a happy life.  But, Bliss isn't the beauty pageant type?  She's shy, quiet and has just one friend and that is Pash, her fellow waitress at a diner.  Things change for Bliss when she discovers a women's roller derby league in Austin and she tries out for the team.  She is whip fast and she makes the team.  Now she needs to become someone tough on the rink, keep her parents from finding out where she goes twice a week and do something about a first crush!!  Her crush is on a musician she meets at the derby.  Meanwhile, mom still sees Bliss as Miss Bluebonnet the beauty pageant winner?  Things are on a collision course and will everyone get banged up not just on the track but in their lives?

     This coming-of-age sports drama stars Juno’s Elliot Page and was directed by perennial teen fave Dew Barrymore.   It offers empowering messages for girls, especially those with unconventional interests and hobbies.  The main character tells lies to her parents and hurts her friends.  She does face the consequences of her behavior and learns from her experiences.  There is plenty of aggressive skating and confrontations during the movie's fast-paced roller derby scenes.  Some strong language, underage drinking and sexual references.  There is a scene with a teen couple kissing and getting mostly undressed underwater.  3 1/12* (I liked this movie)

111 min, Drama directed by Drew Barrymore and written by Shauna Cross with Sarah Habel, Shannon Eagen, Edward Austin Kelly, Mary Callaghan Lynch, Elliot Page, Jimmy Fallon, Alia Shawkat, Marcia Gay Harden, Barbara Coen, Ella Scheel, Nina Kircher, Daniel Stern, Mark Boyd, Carlo Alban, Douglas Minchiewicz.

Note:  Imdb 6.9* out of 10* with 64,497 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 84% out of 189 critic reviews 74% with 100,000+ audience scores, Letterboxd 3.5* with 459 fans, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, commonsensemedia.org 1* consumerism, 2* sex, positive role models, 3* language, drinking, drugs & smoking, Metacritic 68 out of 100 with 32 critic reviews 6.8* out of 10* with 122 user scores.

Special Note:  The Manson Sisters were played by Rachel Piplica and Kristen Adolfi.  They are better known as Iron Maiven and Krissy Krash of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls.  The pair skated for the Hurl Scouts in this film and in real life they skate for the Tough Cookies.  This the team the Scouts were based on.  At one point in the film, Bliss Cavendar lies about her age as being 22 (instead of 17), this was the actual age of Elliot Page who played her at this time.  Elliot Page dropped out of the film Drag Me to Hell (2009) to be in this film.  Formerly known as Ellen Page her name was changed to Elliot Page 12/1/2020.

Mistakes:  During the try-out, Razor is timing the girls' speed around the track with a stopwatch.  But, he announces their times as getting faster and not slower the later the time a girl crosses the line?  In one of the first locker room scenes Smashley Simpson has a taped up nose and two black eyes.  In the next scene her nose is not taped and her black eyes have disappeared.  In the food fight scene, Iron Maiven throws a french fry onto Bliss' face.  Bliss pulls the fry off leaving a smear of ketchup and then tosses a banana cream pie at Iron Maiven.  When Maiven retaliates by dumping a chocolate shake onto Bliss' head, the french fry is back on her face?

Lady for a Day 1933

     Apple Annie is an indigent woman who has always written to her daughter in Spain telling her that she is a member of New York's high society.  Suddenly, her daughter is on her way to America with her new fiancé and his father, a member of Spain's aristocracy.  Annie must continue her pretense of wealth or the count will not give his blessing for the marriage.  She gets unexpected help from Dave the Dude.  He is a well-known figure in underground circles who considers Annie his good luck charm.  He obtains a luxury apartment for her to entertain the visitors.  This uncharacteristic act of kindness from a man with a disreputable reputation arouses suspicions?  The plan leads to complications that further cause things to not always go quite as planned.

     The premise of this film depends on a slight fantasy view of Depression-era urban America.  Was there really an affection for gamblers, hustlers and other skid-row city dwellers?   At the core of the story is the idea that an illusion must be made into a reality.  Apple Annie is a poverty-stricken apple seller and her dignity may not amount to much in the grand scheme of things?  Gambler Dave is superstitious and he never lays down a bet without first buying one of Annie’s apples.  That history is worth setting in motion a chain of events that will eventually require the participation of people in high offices?  3* (I liked this movie)

96 min, Comedy directed by Frank Capra and written by Robert Riskin, Damon Runyon with Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks, Walter Connolly, Jean Parker, Nat Pendleton, Barry Norton.

Note:  Imdb 7.4* out of 10* with 3830 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 100% with 13 critic reviews, 79% with 500+ audience scores, Letterboxd 3.5* out of 5*, Slant Magazine 3* to of 5* Jaime N. Christley, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 78 reviews.

 

Special Note:  A number of beggars in downtown Los Angeles were cast in small roles.  This includes a legless man nicknamed William F. Sauls.  Capra remembered seeing him selling pencils when the director was a paperboy.  Capra was nominated for his first Best Director Oscar in 1934 for his work on this movie.  Presenter Will Rogers just opened the envelope and said come and get it, Frank!  Already halfway to the stage, Capra realized that Rogers wasn't referring to him but to Frank Lloyd and he was getting the award for Cavalcade (1933).  Capra would later remake this film as Pocketful of Miracles (1961) and it was his final film.  

Mistakes:  While Dave the Dude's gang waits inside Missouri Martin's nightclub, Happy McGuire and Dave stand outside.  They are informed about the presence of the police.  Behind them on the left side of the double doors there is a "Closed" sign but the sign is gone when the interior shot has the two men entering the club?  The position of the pool/billiard balls changes between shots in both the pool hall scene and the billiard room scene.  Half the contents of Apple Annie's liquor bottle disappears between gulps while she reads the letter she wrote to her daughter. 

Grey Gardens 1976

      In this film viewers meet a mother and daughter.  They are high-society dropouts and the reclusive cousins of Jackie Onassis.  They manage to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton NY mansion.  Their home is an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.  This film was something of an accident?  Albert and David Maysles came across Edith Bouvier Beale and Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale when they were involved in another project.  It was a movie about the childhood of Lee Radziwell’s.  Lee is the sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  As part of their research, the Maysles brothers were introduced to the Beales and they were captivated by their world.  Deciding not to make the Radzwill film, they turned instead to the Beales.  A year after first meeting the two women they began filming.

     The Maysles brothers pay visits to Edith Bouvier Beale and she is nearing 80 years old.  Her daughter is Edie and they are both reclusive.  They live with cats and raccoons in Grey Gardens.  Edith is dry and quick-witted, a singer, married but later separated and a member of high society.  Edie talks rapidly, readily and sometimes incessantly, she dresses as she puts it for combat in tight ensembles that include scarves wrapped around her head.  There are hints that Edie came home 24 years before to be cared for rather than to care for her mother.  The women address the camera, talking over each other and moving from the present to events years before.  They're odd but they have a flinty affection for each other.  2* (I didn't like this movie)

     This 1970’s documentary about a codependent mother and daughter who are related to Jacqueline is a tragic but also comic portrait of two women who have seen better days.  The behavior and living conditions of these two might be a bit too much for younger and less mature viewers.  "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" are often seen in their shared bedroom drinking rum and Coke.  They argue about the events that led to their shared destiny of living together for decades in the crumbling mansion.  Their behavior is erratic and eccentric but what emerges is a provocative portrait of two fiercely independent women.  They lived through a time in high society where the options for women who wanted to shape their own destinies were limited.  Now they must live with the choices they have made and accept the consequences.    

     
95 min documentary directed and written by Ellen Hovde, David and Albert Maysies, Muffie Meyer with Edith Bouvier Beale, Edith ‘Little Edie’ bouvier Beale, Brooks Hyers, Norman Vincent Peale, Jack Helmuth, David Maysles, Jerry Torre, Lois Wright.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10 with 12,547 reviews, Roger Ebert 4*, Rotten Tomatoes 94% with 33 critic reviews 85% with 5000+ audience scores, Common Sense Media Brian Costello, age 13+, 4* out of 5*, 1* sex, 2* language and drinking, drugs & smoking, Letterboxd 4* out of 5* with 306 reviews.

Special Note:  According to a 2009 interview in the San Francisco  Chronicle, Edith ‘LIttle’ Edie Bouvier Beale wore a beautiful red dress to the 1975 premiere of this film.  But she wore it backwards with the zipper in the front.  Drew Barrymore played Little Edie in the TV movie Gray Gardens (2009) but in the original Grey Gardens (1975), David Maysies asked Little Edie who she would like to portray Big Edie if a movie based on Grey Gardens were made?  He suggested Ethel Barrymore, Drew's great-aunt, despite the fact that Ethel Barrymore had been dead since 1959.

Amreeka 2009

      Muna is a divorced single mother living in Ramallah in the West Bank.  She has applied for a visa to the US.  When the visa arrives, her son Fadi, an excellent student, convinces her they should both go to the US.  There is an incident at customs but they join Muna's sister and family in Illinois.  Muna needs a job, although she has two degrees and 15 years of experience in banking, she settles for work at White Castle.  She is telling the family that her job is at a nearby bank.  It's spring 2003 and the US invades Iraq.  While friends come from unlikely places, Fadi encounters prejudice at school.  How Muna sorts things out with her family is the rest of the story.  Will the result be tragic or hopefull?

     Muna and Fadi are now living with Muna’s sister, her GP husband and two daughters.  Predictable problems occur as life in Amreeka (Arabic for America) seems as difficult as in Ramallah.  Her brother-in-law's patients are deserting him because of the invasion of Iraq.  Fadi is tormented by racist bullies and he fights back with violence at school. Their issues are confronted eventually but as director Dabis recognises, only time, patience and resilience can provide the solution.  Not a subtle film but an interesting and affecting one. The American sequences were shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  3* (This movie is OK)

96 min, Drama directed and written by Cherien Dabis with Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussuf Abut-Warda, Joseph Ziegler, Amer Heikel, Selena Haddad, Jenna Kawar, Sheila Maullem, Brodie Sanderson, Andrew Sannie, Daniel Boiteau.

Note:  Imdb 7* out of 10* with 3432 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 87% with 71 critic reviews 76% with 25000+ audience scores, Metacritic 73 out of 100 with 24 critic reviews 8 out of 10 with 14 user scores, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*.

Special Note:  There were no White Castles in Winnepeg where this was filmed.  The White Castle company had supplies trucked in but it never sold food.  People still kept trying to order from the supposed White Castle?  Amreeka is not a story of American prejudice but of American reality, showing both the good and the bad.  Film debut of Melkar Muallem in the role of Fadi Farah.  She received "an introducing" credit for portraying Fadi.  Feature film directing debut of Cherien Dabis. 

Mistakes:  Interviews and luggage searches are performed by people with "Airport Security" patches on their uniforms.  These jobs would have been conducted by Customs officers and Immigration officers.