The Heiress 1949

     The setting of this film is mid-1800 and it’s based on a stage play.  Dr. Austin Sloper is very wealthy and he has an adult daughter Catherine.  His recently widowed sister Lavinia Penniman lives with them in their opulent house at 16 Washington Square, New York City.  Catherine is a disappointment to Dr. Sloper.  He has paid for her to learn all the social graces but she is plain, simple, awkward and extremely shy.  She spends all her free time doing embroidery except for doting time on her father.  Dr. Sloper often thinks back to the beauty and poise of his late wife.  Dr. Sloper hopes that Lavinia will be able to pass something good onto Catherine.  He also hopes this will help her meet someone to marry.  Catherine meets Morris Townsend at a party and he seems very attentive.

     Dr. Sloper believes Morris is only interested in the money Catherine will inherit when he dies!!  Currently, she will receive $30,000 pounds a year when he dies.  But, he believes he will reduce this in his will and she will receive only $10,000 pounds a year if she marries Morris.  Catherine believes Morris really loves her but they haven’t known each other very long.  Morris lives with his sister and he had some money but he spent it on himslef for travel.  I wasn’t sure what Morris intended and how he really felt??  3 ½*(I liked this movie)

115 min, Drama directed by William Wyler with Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Vanessa Brown, Betty Linley, Ray Collins, Mona Freeman, Selena Royle, Paul Lees.

Note:  Imdb 8.3 out of 10, 100% critic 93% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 4* out of 4* user overall 4* out of 5*, Letterboxd 3.9* out of 5* with 1751 ratings.

Special Note:  Filmed at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.  Montgomery Clift was unhappy with his performance and he walked out of the Premiere.  He also didn’t value the acting talents of De Havilland and he sneered at her.  Director William Wyler was a supporter of her in the lead.  Ralph Richardson as her father took every opportunity to steal scenes from de Havilland.  Basil Rathbone lamented in his autobiography that he did not get the role of Dr. Sloper.  Along with Rathbone, Errol Flynn would have played the role of Morris.  Cary Grant was also interested in the role of Morris but turned down by William Wyler.

Elle 2016

     This film is based on the novel “Oh…” by Philippe Djian.  Michele Leblanc is an independent woman living in France.  She is the CEO of a successful video game company and not timid with her love live.  Someone she doesn’t know attacks her in her home.  Michele’s life is changed forever by this crime and she resolves to track this man down.  Michele has a slacker son and his pregnant girlfriend manipulates him.  She has an ex-husband and he is dating a young yoga teacher.  She is having a boring sex fling with a married man.  Elle’s mother is elderly but she has had plenty of Botox and she is having an affair with a gigolo.  Elle stares at the handsome married neighbor across the street.

     This film quickly switches the plot line and you are shocked when suddenly an unexpected scene comes up.  Then, in your mind you need to figure out if the scene is new or a flashback?  Michele should’ve saved evidence and reported the attack to the police.  Because of experiences with the police in her past, she doesn’t do any of this.  She doesn’t take any advice from friends or family either.  This film is good but it’s too long and has repetitive scenes.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

130 min, Crime directed by Paul Verhoeven with Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira, Judith Magre, Christian Berkel.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, 90% critic 72% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 3.1* out of 5* with 110 reviews, Metacritic 89 out of 100 with 36 critics 7.2* out of 10* with 163 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Yvelines, Paris, Val-de-Marne, France.  Isabelle Huppert won Best Actress for a Golden Globe, Cesar Award, Film Critics, New York Film Critics, LA Film Critics, Gotham Independent and Independent Spirit.  She was nominated for an Academy Award but this went to Emma Stone.   Before production began, Paul Verhoeven didn’t speak French.  He went to a Dutch language institute to learn so he could better communicate with the cast and crew.  He initially spoke English with them but this didn’t work.  He had once been to a French school in his youth so he picked up the language quickly.  Filming began in January 2015 and because of the Paris bombings, the schedule had to be modified.  One scene was moved to another date and the shoot took over three months.  There is another film with the same title from 2013 and it’s a documentary with Harrison Huffman and Jennifer Davis.

Miss Sloane 2016

     Elizabeth Sloane is a lobbyist in Washington DC.  She is known for her record of success and she does whatever it takes to win.  She also aims to be one step ahead of her competition.  The core of this film is the corruption and manipulation used by high-powered lobbyists in DC politics.    

     Lobbyists are wheeler-dealers and they will sell you a car even if you can’t drive or need one!!  Despite the pressure against this film because of the assumed agenda for pro-gun-control, that is not the point this film is trying to make.  Sloane will take any case that she thinks will advance her career and that she thinks she can win.  She is cold and calculating and it doesn’t matter if she supports the cause she is lobbying.  Winning is the end game for Sloane.  There is a BIG twist at the end!!   I thought this was too long and it goes over details for too long.  3* (This movie is OK)

132 min, Drama directed by John Madden with Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Christine Baranski, Alison Pill, John Lithgow, Jake Lacy, Meghann Fahy, Sam Waterston, Dylan Baker, Douglas Smith, Ennis Esmer.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 75% critic 68% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 3.9* out of 5* with 217 reviews, Metacritic 64 out of 100 with 41 critics 6.5 out of 10 with 64 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Cinespace Film Studios, The Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  The US gun lobbyists, the NRA and its supporters instituted an aggressive social media campaign to boycott this film.  Supporters of Donald Trump also wanted to tarnish the credibility of this film.  They believed the pro-gun-control message threatened their constitutional rights.  The box-office momentum of the film was decreased but home video and digital HD fans have turned around the false rhetoric and manipulation of the ratings.

20th Century Women 2016

     Dorothea Fields is 55-years-old, she has a 15 year-old son Jamie and the setting is the summer of 1979.  She is divorced and she rents out rooms in her home so Jamie can experience being around other people and not just his mother.  She feels she may not be enough to raise him alone.  This arrangement also helps her with paying the rent.  24 year-old Abbie is a quirky punk photographer with purple-red hair, William is a handyman who also works on cars and 17 year-old Julie is Jamie’s best friend.  Julie actually doesn't live there or rents a room.  She climbs up the outside scaffolding when she wants to be away from her own home.  Dorothea likes to throw spur of the moment everyone talking around the table dinner parties for friends and people she meets.

     Jamie wonders why his mother never dates anyone for very long?  Isn’t she interested in getting married again or at least a relationship?  Jamie is trying to find his place in the world but the others in his life are doing the same thing with their own lives.  Abbie may have cancer because of a drug her mother took?  William can’t seem to find any woman who wants a serious connection?  Julie is a teen struggling through the teenage years.  Jamie seems levelheaded and may not need any of the tenants?  Maybe Dorothea is just insecure as a single parent?  (3* This movie is OK)     

   

119 min, Comedy directed by Mike Mills with Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Lucas Jade Zumann, Alison Elliott, Thea Gill, Vitaly Andrew LeBeau, Olivia Hone, Waleed Zuaiter.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 88% critic 73% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 3.5* out of 5* with 137 reviews, Metacritic 83 out of 100 with 36 critics 7.1 out of 10 with 87 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Santa Barbara, Montecito and Los Angeles, California; New York City, New York.  According to the director Mike Mills, this film is semi-autobiographical.  The mother character played by Annette Bening is partially based on his mother but with a spin by Bening.  She watched his mother’s favorite films before production began.  Stage Door 1937 and Humphrey Bogart films including Casablanca 1942.  Mike Mills has also directed the film Beginners about his father starring Christopher Plummer.  

If I Were You 2012

     This film is based on a 2006 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn.  Madelyn is stopping by a restaurant on her way home.  She wants to pick up a slice of the cake her husband Paul enjoys so much.  She is very surprised to see Paul eating this cake in the restaurant with another woman!!  Madelyn calls her husband and he says he’s working late??  Suddenly, Paul gets into an argument with the woman, Lucy.  It's because he feels guilty because he is reminded that he is married.  Madelyn follows Lucy and sees her buy liquor and a rope.  She continues to follow Lucy home because she is afraid of what Lucy might do to herself.  Madelyn and Lucy become friends but now it’s Madelyn drinking day and night?

     Supposedly the skyline is New York but this is Toronto.  The events in this film do not seem plausible to me?  I was surprised that Marcia Gay Harden agreed to take this role?  I don’t think this film is very good and it doesn’t get better as it goes along?  I thought this film was based on a play, a lot of times a play doesn't convert to the screen.  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

115 min, Comedy directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin with Marcia Gar Harden, Leonor Watling, Joseph Kell, Daniela Saioni, Genadijs Dolganovs, Jessica Booker, Genevieve Kang, Gary Piquer, Kaitlyn Riordan, Leon Aureus.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 9% critic 70% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.9* out of 5* with 26 reviews, Metacritic 28 out of 100 with 9 critics, Slant Magazine 2* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Mrs. Miniver 1942

     The setting of this film is the first months of WWII in England.  The Minivers are a middle-class family with two young children and an older son.  One of the local gardeners has asked Mrs. Miniver if he can name a rose after her.  He wants to enter the rose in a local gardening competition.  Unfortunately, Lady Beldon usually wins the competition.  Carol, her granddaughter asks the Minivers if they would ask the gardener not to enter the competition.  Since this is an open competition, the gentleman refuses.  Their older son Vincent Miniver falls in love with Carol.  He has the unfortunate task of asking Lady Beldon for Carol’s hand in marriage!!

     I thought this was very good and I can see why it won so many awards. There are scenes of the Minivers in their air raid shelter with their young children.  Their son and daughter are very frightened when the bombs begin hitting very near the shelter.  Their home is badly damaged as well.  There have been several films showing the bombing in London but not as many showing the conditions in the countryside.  Carol Beldon and the Minivers are very worried about Vincent since he is a RAF pilot.  Every mission could be his last. 

134 min, Drama directed by William Wyler with Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Henry Travers, Richard Ney, Henry Wilcoxon, Christopher Severen, Brenda Forbes.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10, 92% critic 85% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 3.5* out of 4*, Amazon DVD 4.8* out of 5* with 255 reviews, Amazon Video 4.7* out of 5* with 284 reviews, ReelViews 3 ½* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 10102 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California.  I was surprised to see this movie was not filmed in the UK?  This is the first movie to receive 5 nominations at the Academy Awards.  Awards were received for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Supporting Actress, Best Writing, Best Cinematography.  Greer Garson married the actor Richard Ney who plays her son Vin.  She was 39 and he was 27 years old, the marriage lasted from 1943 until 1947.  The speech by the Vicar was printed in Time and Look Magazines.    President FDR ordered it be broadcast on the Voice of America and copies were dropped over Europe.  It has become known as the Wilcoxon Speech.  William Wyler stated that he made this film for propaganda reasons.  He was born in Germany but he strongly believed Americans belonged in this war.  He joined the US Army after the  completion of the film and was posted to the Signal Corps.  After his service, he felt the film portrayed war in too softly. 

Peaky Blinders 2014

     The setting of this film in 1919 just after WWI in Birmingham, England.  It is centered on a Romani/Irish gang and they wear caps with razor blades sewn in the peaks.  Tommy Shelby is their boss and he intends to move up in the world.  He served as a Sergeant Major in the war, he comes from a big family and he is the brother of Arthur, John, Ada and Finn.  Chief Inspector Major Chester Campbell is a detective in the Royal Irish Constabulary and Winston Churchill sends him from Belfast to Birmingham.  His new job is to clean the city of the IRA, communists, gangs and common criminals.  Additionally, he is to suppress disorder, uprisings and recover a stolen cache of arms to be shipped to Libya. 

     There is a LOT of violence in this series.  The gang does use their cap razor blades against others.  Many times it seems like this is taking place in Ireland and not England?  The post-war mental state is contributing to the gang activity and the violence.  Many of the men have PTSD but this was unknown until much later.  They have nightmares, have given up on faith and their fellow man in general.  The gang operates off track betting and 25 machine guns have been stolen.  The conditions begin to change when Campbell arrives.  A lot of people become very interested in this series but I just could not keep my mind involved?  3* (This series is OK)

BBC TV, each episode 60 minutes, 3 episodes on each DVD, 3 seasons, Drama directed by Steven Knight with Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Joe Cole, Helen McCrory, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Ian Peck, Annabelle Wallis, Tony Pitts, Sam Neill, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Eric Campbell.

Note:  Imdb 8.8 out of 10, 89% critic 95% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 109 reviews, Metacritic 8.9 out of 10 with 194 ratings.

Special Note:  Filmed in Birmingham, Bradford, Dudley, Leeds, Liverpool, Port Sunlight, Keighley, Damems, Black Country Living Museum England, UK.  Birmingham has more canals than in Venice, Italy.  The title comes from the razor blades in the peaks of the caps.  The show has received criticism for the accents used.  Many UK viewers believe they are watered down versions to appeal to US viewers.  BBC has ordered a fourth and fifth season of this show with Season 4 released to be in late 2017.