Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch 2014

     Joe Hutto begins observing the wild mule deer living high in the mountains near his home in Wyoming.  He started hanging out with the deer and getting them accustomed to his presence.  He has learned a female deer is in charge of the herd.  She tells them when they are to migrate to different territory.  The bucks live with each other and away from the females until mating season.  The lead female approached Joe and through her he gained access to the rest of the herd.

     This is very interesting and good.  You can see how much feeling Joe has for the animals and also their status as declining in numbers.  The harsh winters, hunting and predators take their toll on the population.  4 ½* (I loved this movie)

60 min, PBS Movie with Joe Hutto.

Note:  Amazon 5* out of 5*, PBS 5* out of 5* with 14 reviews.

Special Note:  Joe Hutto also did a study of turkeys in Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey. 

Salting the Battlefield 2014

     This is the concluding episode of the Johnny Worricker Spy trilogy.  MI5 agent Johnny and his ex-girlfriend Margot are traveling back and forth across Europe to stay ahead of the security services on their trail.  The Prime Minister is also out for their blood.  Everyone including their family and friends are being watched.  Worricker is running out of money and he’ll need to wrap this adventure up soon.

     I didn’t think this movie was very interesting.  The British can take a pea, put it under the mattress and make a scandal out of it?  I wondered why this was even made?  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

120 min, TV Movie, Action directed by David Hare with Ralph Fiennes, Anna Boger, Shazad Latif, Felicity Jones, James McArdle, Bill Nighy, Saskia reeves, Daniel Ryan, Leanne Best, Judy Davis, Helena Bonham Carter.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, 76% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 20 reviews.

Special Note:  This film was released 11/16/14.  The two previous movies were Page Eight 11/6

/2011 (6.8 out of 10) and Turks & Caicos 11/9/2014 (7.0 out of 10).

Violette 2013

     At the beginning of the 20^th century, Violette Leduc was born out of wedlock and her mother was a servant.  Her father was the son of the wealthy family where her mother worked.  She never forgets this aspect of her life and she sees herself as ugly, unwanted and unloved.   As an adult, she meets Simone de Beauvoir in the years after the war.  Violette is living in St-Germain-des-Pres and Simone begins to direct Violette’s writing career.  They have this relationship for many years.  Violette writes like a man and she tells of her life as a black market seller during the war and her early years with her mother.  Her first novel is titled, The Prison of Her Skin.  The novel of her early years is titled, The Bastard, published in 1964.  She has also written Mad in Pursuit, The Taxi, The Lady and the Little Fox Fur and Therese et Isabelle.  She was born in 1907 and died in 1972.

     This is a tough life and a tough film.  Don’t expect anything light from the beginning to the end.  Misery and the ability to put her experiences and feelings into words are the sum total of Violette.  It’s difficult for people to be involved in her life because she can become a stalker with a firm grip.  3* (This movie is OK) 

139 min, Bio directed by Martin Provost with Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kilberlain, Olivier Gourmet, Catherine Hiegel, Jacques Bonnaffe, Olivier Py, Nathalie Richard, Stanley Weber, Jean Toscan.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 84% critic 64% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Metascore 72/100 with 14 reviews, 91/100 Entertainment Weekly, 90/100 Village Voice, The New York Times 90/100.

Venus in Fur 2013

     A Tony Award winning Broadway play by David Ives is the basis for this film.  The Broadway play is based on a novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.  Thomas is the director of the play Venus in Fur.  He is attempting to find a woman for a main role in the play.  Vanda is late and everyone has already left except Thomas.  He wants to leave and go to dinner but Vanda persuades him to stay and listen to her audition.  She has come from across town and had many difficulties getting to the theater.  She would like to audition now instead of returning at a later date.

      This film is in French with English subtitles.  I really did not like this and I could not get the least bit interested in any part of it.  It was a slog and not worth reading the subtitles unless you would like to improve speaking the French language.  ½* (I really hated this movie)

96 min, Drama directed by Roman Polanski with Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, 91% critic 71% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Special Note:  It is rare for me to give ½* in a review but a lot of movies based on plays are not my cup of tea.  I find them too centralized on a section of time and this can be seem very boring to me.  The scenery can remain static and the cast can be limited in number.  There are two actors in this film and the theater is the only area of filming.

Third Person 2013

     Three different and separate stories are featured in this film.  Michael has left his wife and he’s staying at a hotel to finish his novel.  Anna begins seeing Michael and she is a journalist who wants to be a writer.  Scott is in Italy to steal fashion designs and he meets Monika in a bar.  Monika has saved her money to pay a smuggler holding her daughter for ransom.  Julia has lost custody of her six-year-old son to her ex-husband.  She must be on time to meet with her lawyer to try to change the courts mind about custody.

     There is something about ensemble movies that seems to hold true and that is that they are usually bad?  It must be that a movie that doesn’t have enough to say about one story but needs to have two more stories in order to advance and fill enough time?  Consequently, none of the stories are important enough to be seen alone?  Even a film filled with good actors can't elevate bad material!!  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

137 min, Drama directed by Paul Haggis with Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Kim Basinger, Maria Bello, Michele Melega, James Franco, Olivia Wilde, Katy Louise Saunders, Loan Chabanol. Oliver, Crouch.

Note:  Imdb 6.4 out of 10, 23% critic 36% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*.

Orphans 1987

     This film is based on a play.  Treat and Philip are orphans who have lived alone together since they were kids.  They live in a large crumbling house set apart from other homes in the area.  Treat robs people for valuables and sells them to a fence to provide food for them.  Philip has a lot of problems and Treat has added to his problems by convincing him he will get lost or suffer allergic reactions if he leaves the house.  He really just wants Philip always to be there when he comes home.  Treat meets a man who is well dressed, he seems wealthy and Treat follows him to a bar.  After the man is sufficiently drunk, Treat takes him to their house.  His plan is to find out what he has in his briefcase and to take the money and valuables from him.  When Treat finds negotiable bonds in the briefcase, he decides to hold Harold for ransom instead.  Maybe they can get a million or two dollars and they will be set for a long time.  Everything turns out unexpectedly when no one wants to pay a ransom for Harold and he offers to hire the brothers as his bodyguard and assistant.

     Harold has a soft spot for the brothers because he grew up in an orphanage as a child.  He works with Treat to get him to be able to contain his volatile temper.  He works with Philip to show him he can go out of the house, he won’t have a bad reaction and he won’t get lost with a map.  3* (This movie is OK)

115 min, Drama directed by Alan J. Pakula with Albert Finney, Matthew Modine, Kevin Anderson, John Kellogg, Anthony Heald, Novella Nelson, Elizabeth Parrish, B. Constance Barry, Frank Ferrara, Clifford Fearl.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 67% critic 76% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*.

The Fall Season One 2013

     This film series is a very intense psychological thriller.  A serial killer in Belfast Ireland carefully selects and stalks his female victims.  Paul Spector has two sides, a dark side where he is a heartless killer and the light side where he is a family man with a wife, a daughter and a son.  He works as a grief counselor with parents who have lost a child.  DSI Stella Gibson has been brought in to consider all the evidence in the first two crimes.  She determines they are connected and probably committed by the same person.  When there is a third murder, the link between the three crimes is more fully established. 

     Very good but the details of the crimes are severe.   They are not continuously dwelt on but the investigation and the details of the killer’s family and professional life pull you away from the harshness.  It’s a race against time for DSI Gibson, she will need every instinct and every aspect of her training to find the killer.  This will be the only way to stop further crimes.  4 ½* (I really liked this series)

60 min each episode, TV Series, Drama directed by Allan Cubitt with Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan, John Lynch, Bronagh Waugh, Niamh McGrady, Sarah Beattie, Aisling Franciosi, Emmett J. Scanlan.

Note:  Imdb 8.2 out of 10, 94% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Metascore 85/100 with 4 critics, 8.1/10 user score with 67 ratings, People Weekly 100/100, the New York Times 70/100.