Late Night 2019

    This film is released by Amazon Original.  Katherine Newbury is the host of a late-night talk-show.  She has had a long run with her show but the producers are disappointed with her attitude and her ratings are very down.  Molly Patel has been working at a chemical facility and she applies for a job as a writer.  Because everyone thinks that Katherine is a hater of other women, she hires Molly right away.  Molly is worried that she has been hired because she is a woman and also an ethnic minority.  This is a double bonus on the books for Katherine.  Molly is determined to be a good writer and to be an addition to the team.
     Molly is shocked when she learns that the men have been using the women’s bathroom along with their own bathroom.  She can’t be alone with her thoughts or tears without one of the men writers running in the door with an emergency.  Molly shares what she thinks and sometimes this is not to her best advantage!!  She knows she doesn’t want to leave New York and go back to the chemical plant!!!  There are positive messages about hard work, courage, perseverance, tolerance and being your own authentic person.  There is also discussion about ageism, sexism, classism and racism.  4* (I liked this movie)  

102 min, Comedy directed by Nisha Ganatra and written by Mindy Kaling with Emma Thompson, John Lithgow, Mindy Kaling, Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott, Denis O’Hare, Max Casella, Paul Walter Hauser, John Early, Jia Patel, Luke Slattery, Ike Barinholtz, March Kudisch, Amy Ryan, Megalyn Echikunwoke.

Note:  Imdb 6.5 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 80% critic 77% audience, Roger Ebert 3 1/2* Sheila O’Malley, Rolling Stone 4* out of 5* Peter Travers, Washington Psot 3 1/2* Ann Hornaday, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 2444 reviews, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5*, Metacritic 70 out of 100 with 46 critics (32 positive, 13 mixed, 1 negative) 5.9 out of 10 user score (24 positive, 16 mixed, 10 negative), Common Sense Media Joyce Slaton, age 14+, 4* positive, 4* role models, 2* sex, 4*( language, 2* drinking, drugs & smoking.

Special Note:  Filmed in New York.  Monday Kaling wrote the role of Katherine specifically for Emma Thompson.  Kaling has worked for Conan O’Brien as an intern.  Emma Thompson talks about her character having clinical depression.  Emma has previously discussed her own clinical depression after her divorce from Kenneth Branagh in 1994.  She is now married to Greg Wise, he is also an actor and they have one daughter Gaia born in 1999.

Bella 2006

     This film is based on a true story.  Eduardo and Nina work at a family restaurant in New York.  The restaurant is managed by Eduardo's brother Manny.  Nina has been late for work as a waitress several times and Manny fires her.  Eduardo pleads with Manny to reconsider but he won't change his mind.  Eduardo leaves his post as chef to talk to Nina.  He learns the reasons behind Nina not showing up for work or late.  Manny is beside himself when three tables walk out because they are short on staff.  He chews Eduardo out over his absence.  Eduardo and Nina decide to meet with Eduardo and Manny's parents because Manny has phoned them.  Eduardo doesn't want them to be worried.
     There is a LOT of background information that is not given until later on in the movie.  There are specific reasons for Nina to be late or absent.  Eduardo has a LOT of compassion and empathy for other people because of the events that have happened in his life.  There is no way Eduardo would let Nina be fired without trying to help her and plead her case to Manny.  Tammy Blanchard shows a wide range of emotional expression on her face.  4* (I really liked this movie)   

91 min, Drama directed by Alejandro Monteverde, written by Alejandro and Patrick Million with Eduardo Verastegui, Tammy Blanchard, Manny Perez, Angelica Aragon, Jaime Tirelli, Ramon Rodriguez, Armando Riesco, Sophie Nyweide, Ali Landry Monteverde, Ewa Da Cruz, Alexa Gerasimovich, Herb Lovelle, Tawny Cypress, Doug DeBeech, Michael Mosley.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, Roger Ebert 3*, Metacritic 47 out of 100 with 18 critics (5 positive, 9 mixed, 4 negative) 7.7 out of 10 user scores (34 positive, 6 mixed, 7 negative), Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 609 reviews, Letterboxd 3.2* out of 5*, Rotten Tomatoes 43 with 65 critics 81% with 20,326 ratings.
 
Special Note:  Filmed in New York City, New York.  The estimated budget was $3,300,000 and the cumulative worldwide gross was $12,083,296.  The father and brother of Director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde were found dead after being kidnapped by a drug cartel on the way to their ranch in Mexico on September 19, 2015.  Alejandro is married to actress and former Miss USA Ali Landry.  They have three children.

Shaun the Sheep Movie 2015

     Shaun the sheep is tired of doing the same work at the farm everyday.  He decides to take a day off.  The only way he can do this is if the farmer doesn’t know?  More happens than Shaun and Bitzer the dog can handle!!  The Farmer falls asleep because sheep were jumping over the fence.  He gets put into an old trailer and the trailer starts to move.  The trailer goes all the way to the city and no one at the farm knows what to do??  Shaun and the Blitzer decide to take a bus to the city to try to locate the farmer.  All of sudden, all the sheep are going too??
     This is one of the funniest movies I’ve have ever seen!!  The farm is located in the town of Mossinham and the farm is called Mossy Bottom Farm.  The Farmer’s name is John, the smallest sheep is Timmy and he sometimes has a pacifier.  Shirley is the largest sheep, there are two sheep that are twins and Hazel is one of the flock members.  Nuts is the sheep with strange eyes??  The movie and also the series are made with Claymation and it’s very time consuming plus labor intensive.  The movie is a spin-off on the series and the series was created by Nick Park.  It is also a spin off of the Wallace and Gromit film, A Close Shave.  There is talking in the film by the characters but the words are unintelligible mumbling especially from the Farmer.  5* (I really liked this movie)

85 min, Animation directed and written by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak with the voices of Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Omid Djalili, Richard Webber, Kate Harbour, Rim Hands, Andy Nyman, Simon Greenall, Emma Tate, Jack Paulson, Sean Connolly, Henry Burton, Dhimant Vyaas, Sophie Laughton, Nia Medi James.  The animation company is Aardman Animation.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, Roger Ebert 4* Susan Wloszczyna, Rotten Tomatoes 99% critic 80% audience, Rollingstone 3 1/2* Peter Travers, The Guardian 4* out of 5* Andrew Pulver, Letterboxd 3.6* out of 5*, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 3249 reviews, Common Sense Media Sandie Angulo Chen age 5+ 5*, 2* educational, 4* positive, 3* role models, 2* violence & scariness, 1* sexy stuff, 1* language, 2* consumerism, Metacritic 81 out of 100 with 30 critics (positive 30) User Score 8.5 out of 10 (positive 198, mixed 16, negative 9.  

Special Note:  Twenty animators worked on the film and each produced two seconds of footage per day!!  The man shown in a scene photographing birds at the pond is executive producer Nick Park.  All the scenes are visual and there is no dialogue except from animal sound effects.  The film was released on the Chinese New Year’s Day of the Year of the Sheep. 

Sophie and the Rising Sun 2016

     This film is based on a 2001 novel by August Trobaugh,  The setting of is in the autumn of 1941 in Salty Creek, South Carolina.  This is a fishing village alongside the creek.  Sophie Willis does a lot of fishing and crabbing, that’s about all she knows how to cook.  She also sells what she doesn’t use to the townsfolk.  An unusual thing happens in the town, Mr. Ohta is Japanese and he arrives in town on a bus.  He has been badly beaten and his circumstances are mysterious?  The people don’t know what to think and he goes to live with Anne Morrison until they can figure out what to do with him?  Unfortunately for Mr. Ohta, WWII is raging in Europe and Pear Harbor is bombed.  After Pearl Harbor, Mr. Ohta is in a LOT of danger!!  He says he was born in California and that’s where his people are still located?  The people don’t look at anything about Mr. Ohta except that he is Japanese and a hated enemy!!
     Mr. Ohta has done a lot of work for Anne in her garden.  Every season the hydrangeas need to be replanted and he has helped her with that work plus worked on her other plants.  Someone comes to Anne's home, they destroy the garden and they go through her home looking for Mr. Ohta.  All they can think of doing is to beat him up again!!  Anne will need to find another place for Mr. Ohta to stay since he's not safe at any location in Salty Creek.  4* (I really liked this movie)    

105 min, Drama directed and written by Maggie Greenwald with Julianne Nicholson, Takashi Yamaguchi, Margo Martindale, Diane Ladd, Lorraine Toussaint, Karen Wheeling Reynolds, Mickey Dodge, Don Henderson Baker, Joel Murray, David Dickson Reynolds, Kenneth Charles Graham, Sabrina Mayfield, Jan Hartsell, Cali Ward, Meredith Jackson. 

Note:  Imdb 6.5 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 64% critic 59% audience, Metacritic 55 out of 100 with 5 critics, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 59 reviews, 3.1* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in McClellanville, South Carolina.  This is the second collaboration between Nicholson and Martindale.  Previously they appeared in August: Osage County 2013.  Premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. 

Toy Story 4

     The toys Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the group set off on a road trip with Bonnie and a new toy that Bonnie made.  Forky is made from a spork and Bonnie made him at kindergarten.  He is very important in Bonnie's life now that she is going to school.  Unfortunately, Forky thinks he is 'trash' since that is what he was made from?  He wants to hop into a trash can every time he sees one!!  There is a unexpected detour when Forky is lost and Woody has a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep.  The two toys run into some complications when they visit an antique toy shop looking for Forky.

     This film is the fourth and possibly the final installment of the Toy Story franchise.  There are many new characters but also returning members of the gang.  There are some high-stakes escapes, rescue mission, close calls and very creepy vintage ventriloquist dummies.  There is the loss of Forky and the slightly sinister doll Gabby Gabby.  She is a doll that is desperate for a new voice box in her back.  I think some scenes are slightly too eerie, dark and depressing.  Some children could find them troubling and could think back on them for a longer time period than favorable.  4* (I really liked this movie)

100 min, Animation Directed by Josh Cooley with the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Jordan Peele, Keanue Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, Kristen Schaal.

 

Note:  Imdb 7.9 out of 10 with 134,353 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, 97% critic 94% audience, Common Sense Media Sandie Angulo Chen 4* out of 5*, age 7+, 1* educational, 4* positive, 4* role models, 2* violence & scariness, 1* sexy, 4* consumerism, 1* drinking, drugs & Smoking, Roger Ebert 4* Matt Zoller Seitz, The Guardian 4* out of 5* Mark Kermode, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 309 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed at Pixar Animation Studios, 1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California.  Bing Bong's rocket from Inside Out 2015 and Elie and Carl's house from Up 2009 are in the antique shop.  The license plate on the car with Bo Peep inside is RMRF97.  This is the code that almost accidentally deleted Toy Story 2 1999 from the Pixar servers.

Delores 2018

     Dolores Huerta skirted 1950’s gender conventions by starting the country’s first migrant farm worker’s union with fellow organizer Cesar Chavez.  In the beginning, it was a struggle for racial and labor justice.  Soon after, it became a fight for gender equality within the same union she was eventually forced to leave.  To complicate everything else Dolores is involved in, she has eleven children.  She has had three marriages and she is nearly beaten to death by a San Francisco tactical police squad baton.  She received three broken ribs and her injured spleen needed to be removed.  Dolores has a vision that connected her to feminism along with racial and class justice.

     Dolores received a LOT of flack for leaving her children behind to be raised by someone else!!  She also was derided for having eleven children and three marriages!!  In reality, as long as her children are receiving proper care what is the complaint?  It’s her own business about her marriages, does this history deny her the chance to make changes in America?  She is tirelessly working for the Mexican laborers in the fields and their treatment by the owners.  The wages are too low and there is pesticide use on the produce.  These chemicals cause skin sores and sickness in the workers.  This is an underrepresented people and they needed a strong voice to advocate for fair and better treatment.  Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers organization.  Dolores has been honored by US presidents and she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)
    
95 min, Doc directed by Peter Bratt, written by Jessica Congdon and Peter Bratt with Dolores Huerta, Martin Luther King, Luis Valdez, Ricardo S. Chavez, Fred Ross Sr., Lori De Leon, Juana Chavez, Randy Saw, David Roberti, Elseo Medina, Eloy Martinez, Rick Rivas, Emilio Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Bill Kircher.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10 with 257 reviews, Roger Ebert 3 1/2* Matt Zoller Seitz, 98% critic with 43 critics, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Cath Clarke, Common Sense Media 4* out of 5* age 11+ Michael Ordona, 4* positive, 4* role models, 3* violence, 1* sex, 1* languageWashington Post 3.5* out of 4* Lora Grady, Slant Magazine 2.5* out of 4* Peter Goldberg, Amazon 5* with 37 reviews, Letterboxd 3.8*, Metacritic 81 out of 100 with 11 critics (11 positive) user score 7.3 out of 10 (3 positive, 1 negative).

Counting the Stars 2019

     This film is based on the biography of renowned mathematician Katherine Johnson by Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrated by Raul Colon.  Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or astronauts walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as human computers.  They worked tirelessly to make sure the calculations for these trips were accurate.  They used their knowledge, pencils, adding machines and writing paper to calculate the orbital mechanics needed to launch spacecraft.  Katherine Johnson was one of these mathematicians who used trajectories and complex equations to chart the space program.  Katherine started in the early 1950’s to analyze data at NACA (later NSA) Langley laboratory.  

     In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Katherine Johnson was called upon to work on this project.  John Glenn said get the girl to run the numbers by hand to chart the complexity of the orbital flight.  He knew that his flight would not be successful without her unique skills.  President Barack Obama awarded Katherine the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.  Her incredible life inspired the Oscar nominated film Hidden Figures.

     From the time Katherine was a young girl she loved math.  She counted the stars from her bedroom window at night.  She had a curiosity about the world and she was very studious.  She was born August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.  Her parents were Joylette and Joshua Coleman and she was the youngest of four children.  Joylette was a teacher and Joshua was a lumberman, farmer, handyman and he also worked at the Grenbrier Hotel.  Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African-American students past the eighth grade.  The Colemans moved and their children attended high school in Institute West Virginia.  Katherine moved through the lower grades very quickly and she was enrolled at the age of ten in high school at she graduated at the age of 14.  She took every math course offered by the college.  Multiple professors mentored her including chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King and also W.W. Schieffelin Claytor.  He is the third African-American to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.  Claytor added new mathematics courses just for Katherine.  
     She graduated summa cum laude in 1937 with degrees in mathematics and French at the age of 18.  She was the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia.  Through the efforts of WVSC’s president, Dr. John W. Davis , she became one of three African-American students and the only woman selected to integrate the graduate school after a US Supreme Court ruling.  The court ruled that states providing higher education to white students also had to provide it to black students.  There is more information about Katherine and her co-workers at NASA in the film Hidden Figures.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)   

21 minutes, Doc directed by Andy T. Jones with Bahni Turpin.