Life Inside Out 2013

     Laura and her sister Lydia took over their mother’s ice cream shop when she passed away.  It wasn’t what they wanted for their lives but they needed to do this for their father until the shop could be sold.  Laura starts playing the guitar she used to love but hadn’t thought of in years.  Lydia starts selling scrap booking supplies at home parties.  Laura’s teenage son Shane starts getting interested in the guitar, writing songs and singing too.  Laura and Shane go together to the city for open mike nights. 

     This film is a combination of searching both in middle age and as a teenager.  Looking for what you really want to do with your life as you are getting older and as you are on your way to becoming an adult.  Laura has pressure from her husband and her sister.  Shane has peer pressure and from his two brothers.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)  

102 min, Drama directed by Jill D’Agenica with Maggie Baird, Finneas O’Connell, Lori Nasso, David Cowgill, William Dennis Hunt, Roscoe Brandon, Orson Ossman, Patrick O’Connell, Joe Hart Goh Nakamura.

Note:  Imdb 6.5 out of 10, 63% critic 88% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 61 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Los Angeles, California.  Laura and her son Shane are actually mother and son, Maggie Baird and Finneas O'Connell.

Wodehouse in Exile 2013

     P.G. Wodehouse is the author of Jeeves and Wooster.  At the beginning of WWII, P.G. and his wife are living in France while he works on a new novel.  The German’s requisition their cars, P.G. and other British national males are taken to an internment camp in Poland.  P.G. entertained his fellow prisoners with his stories.  When he was released from the camp due to reaching 60 years old, he gave several readings over the radio at the urging of the Germans.  Because of these programs, he was charged with treason and being in sympathy with his former captors.

     This film is inspired by the true story of Wodehouse during the war.  He was cleared of the treason charges but no announcement was ever made stating he has been cleared.  The reason for the charges was his release a few months prior to his actual birthday of 60.  His reason for doing the broadcasts was to show unbroken British resolve.  Ethel, his wife blasted P.G. for being so naïve.  I thought this was a little boring?  Maybe British humor is very mild compared to American humor?  3* (This movie is OK)

82 min, Drama directed by Tim Fywell with Tim Pigott-Smith, Zoe Wanamaker, Curran McKay, Simon Coury, Robert Cooper, Paul Ritter, Flora Montgomery, Paul Mallon, Niall Cusack, Kevin Trainor.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 15 reviews.

Special Note:  This movie was film in Northern Ireland.

Adult Beginners 2014

     Jake is an entrepreneur riding high on the eve of his company’s big launch.  He and his investor friends are set to make a big payout.  Unfortunately, Jake receives the news that there is a crash and burn instead of a big launch.  Now all his friends are out to get him for losing their investment money.  Some want to kill him so it might be a good idea for him to leave Manhattan.  Since he doesn’t have any money or a job, he goes to the family home on Long Island where his sister, her husband and young son live.  His sister is expecting another child, they want to sell the house and Jake’s visit is very unexpected.  Justine and Danny give Jake the job of watching their son Teddy instead of taking him to daycare.

     There are some advantages to the babysitting job.  Jake gets a salary and he has a golden opportunity to meet women with their children.  He is suffering from depression and the phone kill messages continue.  It’s a bit like returning to a cocoon for him to have his old room back at home.  This is somewhat predictable but entertaining.  3* (This movie is OK)

92 min, Comedy directed by Ross Katz with Rose Byrne, Nick Kroll, Babby Cannavale, Joel McHale, Caleb and Matthew Paddock, Paula Garces, Caitlin FitzGerald, Jane Krakowski, Mike Birbiglia, David Bernon, Bobby Moynihan.

Note:  Imdb 5.6 out of 10, 48% critic 31% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 3.3* out of 5* with 103 reviews.

Special Note:  Nick Kroll is a comedian with a Comedy Central series called the Kroll Show.  Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale are married in real life with a son.  This movie was filmed in New York.  The role of Teddy is played by twin boys.

The Longest Ride 2015

     This film is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks.  Luke is a champion bull rider and he’s been hurt before so he really shouldn’t be riding bulls.  Sophia is a college student coaxed by her friends to go to a riding completion.  Sophia picks up Luke’s hat in the ring and returns it to him but he says she can keep it.  They go on a date and they both have a very good time.  While driving, they see a car is on fire and has hit a road barrier.  They save an elderly man and a box of his letters from the car.  They take him to the nearest hospital and Sophia continues to visit him even after he is released.  Sophia and Luke try to make their relationship work but she doesn’t want him to be hurt again in the ring.  He can’t see any other life than riding the bulls?

     Of course there is a lot of angst in this film because it’s by Nicholas Sparks!!  All the men are very handsome and all the women are very beautiful.  They all have perfect faces and hair plus there cannot one hair out of place.  Even the landscape needs to be very beautiful too!!  There cannot be any run down shacks or cars within view.  This film is just slightly entertaining but very predictable.  2 ½* (This movie is so-so)

128 min, Drama directed by George Tillman Jr. with Scott Eastwood, Britt Robertson, Alan Alda, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin, Melissa Benoist, Lolita Davidovich, Elea Oberon, Kate Forbes, Tiago Riana, Danny Vinson.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 29% critic 71% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 ½*, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 2886 reviews.

Special Note:  This movie was filmed in North Carolina.  Scott Eastwood is the son of Clint Eastwood, Jack Huston is the grandson of John Huston and Oona Chaplin is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years 2016

     The Beatles seemed to come out of nowhere in the 1960’s.  This film features interviews with Paul and Ringo plus archival interviews and footage of their concerts from 1963 to 1966.  Beatlemania began to wear on them and they needed to escape from their fans in order to grow from young boys to men.  Some fans turned their backs on them when their music began to change.

     I would’ve liked more in depth interviews with McCartney and Starr about their history over the years.  How much longer will they be around to relate their stories?  It is interesting to see the changes in the group over the years.  Many of their fans didn’t want them to change in appearance or their style of writing and singing.  Many people can relate to the first time they listened or saw the Beatles.  They are a part of history.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

137 min, Doc directed by Ron Howard with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison, Brian Epstein, Larry Kane, Elvis Costello, Eddie Izzard.

Note:  Imdb 8.0 out of 10, 95% critic 89% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Rolling Stone 3* out of 4*.

Special Note:  When The Beatles toured in 1964 to the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.  Ringo Starr was in the hospital with tonsillitis.  Jimmy Nicol substituted for him.  There is a mistake at the concert from Shea Stadium.  George uses a 12-string guitar but there are shots of his Gretch instead.

As High as the Sky 2012

     Margaret lives alone in Southern California.  She was blindsided when her fiancé said it wasn’t working and they broke up.  Her older sister and her sister’s daughter show up on the doorstep.  Margaret wasn’t expecting Josephine and ten-year-old Hannah.  Margaret has a lot of obsessive-compulsive behaviors that have gotten worse since the break-up.  Hannah can’t believe that Margaret works as a party planner?  It doesn’t seem that Margaret would even know what a party is?  Josephine leaves for a couple of days to go to a seminar and she asks if Hannah can stay.  Surprisingly, Margaret and Hannah start to really get along with each other.

     Josephine and Hannah are nothing like Margaret and it seems they could not be related at all?  Margaret needs everything to have a place in her home and be in the right place!!  This film moves along at a slow pace and you wonder what is going to happen at the end?  But, you become very drawn into the characters and care about what happens to them.  The actors seem to become the characters instead of acting as them.  There is a twist to the ending.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

90 min, Comedy directed by Nikki Braendlin with Caroline Fogarty, Bonnie McNeil, Laurel Porter and the voices on the phone of Dee Wallace and Jenny O’Hara.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 83% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 42 reviews.

Special Note Caroline Fogarty was in Waitress and Legally Blondes.  Bonnie McNeil was in Red Poppies and Sympathy for Delicious.

My Blueberry Nights 2007

     Jeremy is running a diner in New York.  A lot of people come and go, relationships work and they don’t.  Many of the customers leave keys behind in a jar because they want to move on from their boyfriend or girlfriend.  They don’t know what else to do with the keys and there is a chance they might change their minds?  Elizabeth’s heart is broken and she leaves her keys.  She needs someone to talk to so she talks to Jeremy.  She picks blueberry pie and ice cream as a heart soother because it is the one entire pie left behind at the end of the night.  People make choices.  She leaves New York and starts working two jobs in Memphis because she has trouble sleeping.  She is trying to save for a car.  She leaves Memphis after one of the regulars dies after trying to get over his broken heart.  She takes a job at a casino in Nevada.  She stakes Leslie in a poker game for a chance to take over Leslie’s Jaguar if she loses the money in the game.

     This is the first film role for Norah Jones.  There is really not very much going on in this movie.  There are relationships working or not working and people going through the motions of life.  A woman afraid to move on, a man unable to move on, a con artist working her cons.  I liked the desserts the best of all!!  3* (This movie is OK)

95 min, Drama directed by Kar Wai Wong with Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Frankie Faison, David Strathairn, Adriane Lenox. Benjamin Kanes.

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, 47% critic 61% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 3.7* out of 5* with 71 reviews.

Special Note:  This movie was filmed in New York City, Memphis Tennessee; McGill, Caliente, Ely, Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California.  The name of the café in New York is Kyuch which means key in Russian.