The Man in the White Suit 1951

     Sidney Stratton is working as a janitor in a textile mill in the north of England.  He has set up an experiment in the lab at Birnley Mill and he is trying to make an everlasting fiber.  No one knows anything about this side job he is doing.  When another plant owner comes to tour the plant, everyone can’t explain the expense and the purpose of this equipment.  The trail leads to Sidney and he is fired.  When the owner finds out what the experiment is for, he invites Sidney back to finish his work.  He does invent a very strong and everlasting thread.  It is woven into a fabric and Sidney makes a white suit out of the material.

      Sidney thinks this fabric will revolutionize the milling industry but he doesn’t understand the repercussions the workers and owners see.  This was filmed in black and white and it is interesting on many levels.  There is a large gap between the living and working conditions between the owners and the trade workers during this period.  The owners live in their mansions and the workers live in rooming houses.  3* (This movie is OK)

 

85 min, Comedy directed by Alexander Mackendrick with Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Howard Marion-Crawford, Henry Mollison, Vida Hope, Patric Doonan, Duncan Lamont.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 100% critic 82% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 48 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed at Brimsdown Station, Enfield, Middlesex; Ealing Studios, Ealing, London and Picadilly Road, Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK.  I liked Joan Greenwood’s raspy voice!!  Alec Guinness was 35 during filming.

Irrational Man 2015

    There is a lot of buzz going around Braylin College, a small town campus near Newport, Rhode Island.  Abe Lucas has signed on as a new philosophy professor.  His reputation as a womanizer and an alcoholic precede his arrival.  What they don’t know about him is that he is frozen as an author and disillusioned as an idealist because he is not able to anything change in the world.  As a teacher, he’s just going through the motions.  He keeps a flask with single malt whiskey at his side at all times.  He begins an affair with Rita, another professor.  He also has an attraction to one of his students, Jill Pollard.  Abe and Jill overhear a woman’s conversation at a diner and this begins to stir Abe’s muddied mind.

     This is so Woody Allen!!  It’s always a lot of conversation about relationships and choices.  In this case, Abe is doing both Rita and Jill a tremendous disfavor by becoming a presence in their lives.  This is a bullet they needed to quickly dodge!! There are a lot of rumor has it stories about Abe’s life that are offered to explain why he is the type person he is.  I thought every story never happened and Abe probably made them up?  There is nothing deep in this film and nothing outside of the Allen norm.  Just entertaining and I could see the outcomes way before they occurred!!  3* (This movie is OK)

95 min, Crime directed by Woody Allen with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Pasey, Joe Stapleton, Nancy Carroll, Allison Gallerani, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Katelyn Semer, Betsy Aidem Ethan Phillips. 

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, 44% critic 46% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 ½*, Amazon 3.5* out of 5* with 117 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Newport, Portsmouth, Cranston, Jamestown, Richmond, Pawtucket, Rhode Island.  Allen always keeps a notepad beside his bed.   If he thinks of something for a screenplay, he jots it down.  He also writes down ideas on scraps of paper.  I could see him thinking this up and writing it down.  Emma Stone must be his current muse?  Joaquin Phoenix has a belly and he gained 33 pounds for this role because this is how he envisioned the character.

The Vatican Tapes 2015

     Angela Holmes is 27 years old and she accidentally cuts herself in the kitchen very severely.  Her dad and her boyfriend convince her to go to the hospital for treatment.  When she goes home, she starts to act strangely. Her dad Roger and her boyfriend Pete think it has something to do with the medication she was given for the injury.  They take her back to the hospital.  The psychiatrist tries to get her to talk but she won’t tell her anything.  She starts speaking Aramaic through a wall in the hospital and people on the other side kill themselves or others in the room.  The hospital asks Roger to sign her release forms right now.  Father Lozano calls the Vatican and a priest is sent to perform an exorcism. 

     Okay, I thought this movie still had more time until it ended?  The credits started to roll and I thought, “Is that the end?”  I wonder if this is the first installment in a series?  I don’t know, this film is not very good and the ending is not good at all?  There isn’t anything new and nothing here you haven’t seen before.  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

91 min, Horror directed by with Olivia Taylor Dudley, Michael Pena, Dougray Scott, Djimon Hounsou, John Patrick Amedori, Michael Pare, Cas Anvar.

Note:  Imdb 4.5 out of 10, 20% critic 21% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*, Amazon 3.5* out of 5* with 102 reviews.

Diary of a Teenage Girl 2015

     This film is based on a novel by Phoebe Gloeckner.  Minnie is a teen girl and artist living in San Francisco of 1976.  Minnie’s drawings are very good and she would like to somehow make a living with her art.  Her mother has a small role in her life, she cares but sometimes it’s hard to see that emotion.  She has a full time job and she is raising two daughters alone.  Minnie’s stepfather is humorous and he is also caring but he doesn’t know what is going on in the family.  Minnie begins an affair with her mother’s boyfriend Monroe and he is in his 30’s.  She's hoping to keep this information from her mother.

     Everything in this film is from Minnie’s perspective.   She is searching for her place in the world and she gets caught up in the attention she receives from Monroe.  It’s hard to be a teenager overwhelmed by emotions, everything is in the moment and life-or-death!!  She has growing up to do before she can make the right choices and she needs other people not force their options on her.  3* (This movie is OK)

102 min, Drama directed by Marielle Heller with Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig, Abby Wait, Willie, Miranda Bailey, Carson D. Mell. John Parsons, Madeleine Waters, Austin Lyon, Quinn Nage, Davy Clements.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, 93% critic 75% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*,

Special Note:  Filmed in San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland, California.   Scenes with Minnie and Kimmie at a bar was filmed at The Alley, a piano bar in Oakland.  The cast and crew had their wrap party and the same location.

Ulee's Gold 1997

     Ulysses Jackson keeps bees on property in the Florida panhandle.  His wife died six years ago and his two granddaughters live with him.  They don’t know where their mother is and their father is in prison on a robbery charge.  Ulee hasn’t talked to his son in two years but he gets a call from him about Helen.  She is Jimmy’s wife and the mother of Casey and Penny.  Jimmy says Helen is sick and his robbery partners Ferris and Eddie picked her up.  Ulee goes to find Ferris and Eddie so he can bring Helen back with him.  She’s been taking Rohypnol also known as roofies and Ulee is the only one who really wants to help her.  Rohypnol is ten times stronger than Valium.  Connie is a nurse living across the street from Ulee and she comes over to help with Helen.

     There is a slow steady pace about this film but it is interesting and the characters are good.  Ferris and Eddie are not nice guys and later they show up at Ulee’s home.  It is because of something Helen told them about the robbery while she was on drugs.  This situation becomes tense and you don’t know how it’s going to end.  I wanted to see this film because the name Ulee is in a lot of crossword puzzles since it is an unusual word.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

113 min, Drama directed by Victor Nunez with Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, Christine Dunford, Tom Wood Jessica Biel, Vanessa Zima, Steven Flynn, Dewey Weber, J. Kenneth Campbell, Traber Burns.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 94% critic 74% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Amazon 4.0* out of 5* with 76 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Orlando, Apalachicola, Port St. Joe and Wewahitchka, Florida.  Peter Fonda wore the watch belonging to his father Henry Fonda during filming as a good luck charm.  Peter’s most recognized film is Easy Rider of 1968 about motorcyclists on an odyssey.

Sicario 2015

     Agent Kate Macer and her partner Reggie Wayne have been working with the FBI SWAT team to raid the hideouts of suspected Mexican drug cartel workers and kidnappers.  Kate volunteers for a task force formed by the Department of Defense and the CIA.  They will work with U.S. Marshalls and Delta Force operatives.  Their first mission is to extradite the brother of Manual Diaz, one of the cartel leaders.  They will interrogate Guillermo to learn where a tunnel is located in Mexico used for drug smuggling.  The teams will then go through this tunnel and try to encounter Diaz.  Their main goal is to reach Alarcon, the head of the cartel. 

     I have some complaints about this film.  It is too long, there is too much driving, the music sets the tone for intense scenes but some are not worth the tension.  The characters played by Brolin and Del Toro are strong push people around roles.  Kate does a lot of watching and not asking questions.  Her friend Reggie is just another character but he is the only supporter of Kate.  There is a twist in the later scenes that I didn’t see coming.  3* (This movie is OK)

121 min, Action directed by Denis Villeneuve with Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal, Daniel Kaluuya, Jeffrey Donovan, Raoul Max Trujillo, Julio Cedillo, Hank Rogerson.

Note:  Imdb 7.7 out of 10, 93% critic 85% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 2381 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, El Paso, Texas, Mexico City, Mexico.  Development of this film started when drug violence in Juarez was at its highest in 2010.

The Winslow Boy 1999

 

     This film is based on a play written by Terence Rattigan.  The setting is England early in the twentieth century.  The Winslow family is just celebrating the engagement of their daughter Catherine to Captain John Watherstone.  Catherine is a supporter of women’s suffrage but John is more conservative.  The youngest son of the family, Ronnie was not due home until closer to Christmas.  He has returned home early because he has been expelled from the royal naval academy at 14 years old.  He is accused of stealing a five-shilling postal note and everyone in the family is very upset over this incident.  Ronnie claims he is innocent of the charges and the family enrolls him in another school.  Arthur, Ronnie’s father and his sister Catherine are willing to risk income, security, health, domestic peace and her engagement to obtain justice for Ronnie. They are defeated in the military court of appeals but they take their case to Sir Robert Morton.  He is a brilliant barrister and a Member of Parliament.  Sir Morton questions Ronnie and at first the family is devastated that Sir Morton thinks Ronnie is guilty but this is not the case.

     I had a difficult time maintaining my interest in this film.  Even though it is a minor offense, I can see why the family will do everything they can to prove that Ronnie is innocent.  He should not have to go through life from this young age with this charge hanging over his head.  It is just not as interesting as it should be?  I did like the characters and I thought the social etiquette of this period was interesting.   Sometimes I have a problem with films based on a play.  They can be awkward to translate to a different art medium.  2 1/2* (This movie is just so-so) 

104 min, Drama directed by David Mamet with Rebecca Pidgeon, Jeremy Northam, Nigel Hawthorne, Gemma Jones, Lana Bilzerian, Sarah Flind, Aden Gillett, Guy Edwards, Colin Stinton, Eve Bland, Sara Stewart.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 97% critic 76% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 130 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in London, England, UK.  Another version of this film was released in 1948.  An interesting fact is that Neil North played the First lord of the Admiralty in this film and he played Ronnie in the 1948 version.