Blow the Man Down 2019

     Mary Beth and Priscilla live in the village of Easter Cove on Maine’s rocky coast.  Mary Beth and Priscilla’s mother has just passed away and she had been in a hospital.  After receiving guest at their home, Priscilla tells Mary Beth that they can’t afford to keep the house.  Mary Beth had planned on going to college?  There isn’t money for that either.  Mary Beth leaves and goes to a local bar to drown her sorrows.  She meets Gorski at the bar and she leaves with him.  She drives his car and crashes into a local monument of a Maine fisherman.  Gorski opens the trunk and Mary Beth see blood inside.  He immediately tries to attach Mary Beth but she runs away.  He follows her and she spears him in the next with harpoon.  He is still alive so Mary Beth hits in his the head with a brick.  She gets Priscilla to help her clean up this mess!!

     The theme song is sung by the Sea Chanty singing group from Easter Cove.  The coast of Maine is a formidable location to live.  There is a LOT of cold, snow and strong winds coming off the sea.  Some items to consider about this area are the job market, adapting to a rural community, finding the right school for kids.  A period of several storms can drop 4 feet of snow.  The roads are plowed with a snowbank along the sides.  There is a living to made harvesting the ocean but a rugged life.  An interesting film.  4* (I liked this movie)       

91 min, Drama written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Drudy with Margo Martindale, Marceline Hugot, Morgan Saylor, Meredity Holzman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Sophie Lowe, June Squibb, Annette O’Toole, Linda Shary, Owen Burke, Skipp Sudduth.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10 with 1,760 views, Rotten Tomatoes 99% with 88 critics 79% audience with 104 ratings, Roger Ebert 3*, RollingStone 3* out of 5* David Fear, Washington Post 3* out of 4* Ann Hornaday, Datebook SF Chronicle clapping Mick LaSalle, Metacritic 72 out of 100 with 19 critics 4.8 out of 10 with 8 ratings, Letterboxd 3.3* out of 5*, Amazon 3.8* out of 5* with 448 ratings.

Special Note:  Filmed in Cundy’s Harbor, Will’s Gut, Cundys Point Rd, Holbrook’s General Store, Bailey Island Cribstone Bridge, Orr’s Island Cemetery, Orr’s Island Meetinghouse, Islands Rd, Orr’s Island, Harpswell and Bath, Maine.

Father Brown, The Celestial Choir 1/2020

     This is the eighth season of this series and it is based on short stories by G.K Cheston.  The time setting is the 1950’s and Father Brown is a mild-mannered Roman Catholic priest.  The stories are about the happenings in and around the fictional Cotswold village of Kembleford.  The Kembleford Choristers have won a singing competition and they are on their way to Worcester Cathedral for the final round of singing.  There are problems along the way with the church’s omnibus breaking down.  It has been sabotaged by the cutting of the fuel line?  Father Brown and the singers make their way across the farmland to try to catch at train to Worcester.

     Other problems with the Choir are one of the female members is ill on the day of the final.  Lady Felicia is asked to take her place.  During a heavy rain storm, the group takes refuge in a barn.  It is discovered that there is a warning written on the side of barn for the group to go home?  The writing is suspected to have been done by one of the other two choirs?  At the last moment the Choir arrives in Worcester.  The plots of this series are good, the actors look like real people and the stories and issues come from real life in the UK.  I thought this episode was interesting and funny at times.  5* (I really like this series)

44 min each episode, 10 episodes, Crime directed by Paul Gibson and written by Rachel Flowerday, Tahsin Guner, Kit Lambert with Ashley Campbell, Nancy Carroll, Sarah Ingram, Daisy Maywood, Joseph Prowen, Hugh Sachs, Roger May, Emer Kenny, Sorcha Cusack, Jack Deam, John Burton.

Note:  Imdb 7.8 out of 10 with 78 views, dailymail.co.uk 5*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 81 ratings, Rotten Tomatoes 100% average audience score. 

Special Note:  This series began in 1974 on television and as of January 17, 2020, 90 episodes have been shown.  A ninth series will be broadcast in 2021.

A Handful of Dust 1988

     This film is based on a novel by Evelyn Waugh published in 1934 and the setting is England during the 1930’s.  Lord Tony and Lady Brenda Last live on Tony’s enormous estate in Hetton with their young son John Andrew.  Tony is not interested in parties and Brenda loves London society.  She starts going to events with John Beaver, he is penniless and a hanger-on at Tony’s club.  John’s mother sees money in Tony and Brenda so she encourages John to see Brenda.  She begins to spend more time in London and Tony thinks she is living with a female friend.  Unfortunately, Tony and Brenda experience a tragedy in their lives.  Brenda decides to reside in London and Tony learns that John also lives with Brenda’s female friend.  Brenda files for divorce and Tony reluctantly agrees.  He refuses to finalize the divorce because he cannot afford the 2000 pounds a month that she is requesting.  Tony would need to sell the estate to pay Brenda the money and he refuses to do that.  Instead, he meets an adventurer and he heads out on an expedition to Brazil.  Now, Brenda has no money and John has no money.  Only John’s mother has money and she is thrifty with her money??

     Tony very much enjoys the role of country gentleman and he keeps them poor by spending his fortune maintaining his Victorian-Gothic manor.  The bedrooms are named Guinevere, Galahad, etc and there are 61 bedrooms.  Brenda and Tony are both devoted to their young son John.  Brenda pines for the gaiety of London.  John Beaver is colorless and without flair.  He is known chiefly as London’s only spare-man-about-town.  John is invited to Hetton for a weekend.  Brenda feels sorry for John and she decides to ask him to show her around London on her trips.  Incredibly, she falls in love with John??  Brenda’s demands for alimony are to provide for the needs of John.  There are the parties, casual drinking at club bars and serious drinking at low dive bars plus cigarettes.  Then there is Tony’s exploring expedition to find the Lost City of the Amazon?  Is this trip solely for the purpose of getting out of paying 2000 pounds a month??  5* (I have seen this before and I really liked this movie)  
       
118 min, Drama directed and written by Charles Sturridge and also written by Tim Sullivan and Derek Granger with James Wilby, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard Beale, Jackson Kyle, Norman Lumsden, Jeanne Watts, Kate Percival, Richard Leech, Roger Milner, Tristram Jellinek, Angelica Huston, Rupert Graves, Judi Dench, Pip Torrens, Beatie Edney, Stephen Fry, Graham Crowden.
Note: Goodreads gives the book 3.92* out of 5* with 22,272 ratings and 1,167 reviews, Amazon gives the book 4.3* with 190 reviews, Imdb 6.7 out of 10 with 1,731 views, Roger Ebert 3*, Rotten Tomatoes 45% audience score with 1,966 reviews, Amazon 3.5* out of 5* with 96 ratings, Metacritic 84 out of 100 with 19 critics (18 positive 1 mixed) 7.2 out of 10 user scores with 5 ratings, Letterboxd 3.2* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed at Highclere Castle, Highclere, Hampshire; Abbey Road Studios, St. John’s Wood, London; Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex; England, UK, Canima National Park, Estado Bolivar; Ciudad Guyana, Venezuela; Brighton, East Sussex; Calton Towers, Selby, North Yorkshire; Windsor and Eton Central Station, Windsor, Berkshire; England, UK.  The Duke of Norfolk let his house be used and appeared as the gardener touching his forelock respectfully to Mrs. Ratterby.  James Wilby and Rupert Graves played love rivals in this movie but in the Merchant Ivory movie, Maurice 1987, they played lovers.  This movie was released 54 years after its source novel of the same name was published.  Nominated for an Oscar for the Best Costume Design Academy Award in 1989.  Lost out to Dangerous Liaisons 1988 and both films had George Fenton as the music composer.  Highclere Castle is the setting for the filming of the TV series Downton Abby.  It is also the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.

Hunters: Season 1 2020

     This series is inspired by true events.  It follows a diverse band of Nazi Hunters in 1977 New York City.  They discover that hundreds of escaped Nazis are living in America.  They form a vigilante squad and they are on a quest for revenge and justice.  They soon discover a far-reaching conspiracy and a race against time to thwart the Nazis’ new plans for the Jews.

     Jonah Heidelbaum is an aspiring weed dealer in the late 1970’s New York City.  His only surviving family member is his grandmother and she is murdered in what looks like a home invasion.  Jonah has been living with his grandmother and her death hits him very hard!!  Jonah sets out to investigate the murder on his own.  There is graphic violence, profanity, hate speech with racial epithets, many anti-Semitic rants.  There is also the exploration of ethics, morals and is is justifiable to kill people involved in acts of unspeakable evil?  I thought this was good but I didn’t like the conclusion.  4 1/2* (I liked this series)    
  
Note:  Amazon 3.3* out of 5* with 5.950 ratings, Rotten Tomatoes 63% with 104 critics 67% with 910 ratings, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Lucy Mangan, indiewire.com Ben Travers 
Grade B, Common Sense Media Marty Brown, Age 17+,2* positive, 3* role models, 5* vilence, 4* sex, 5* language, 3* smoking, drinking, drugs.

Titles:  (1) In the Belly of the Whale (2) The mourner’s Kaddish, (3) While Visions of Santa Danced in His Head (4) The Pious Thieves (5) At Night, All Birds are Black (6) Ruth 1:16 (7) Shalom Mother (8) The Jewish Question (9) The Great Ole Nazi Cookout of ’77 (10) Eilu v’Eilu.

Special Note:  It is possible there will be a season 2 but this has not been confirmed yet by Amazon Prime.  The reviews are polarizing.  There is criticism for its tone and pacing but praise for its performances.  Some criticism for an inaccurate use of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, a depiction of prisoners being forced to participate in a game of human chess was called out as "dangerous foolishness and caricature."  The museum was also concerned that the show also "welcomes future deniers."  Director of the USC Shoah Foundation, Stephen D. Smith heavily criticized the show and concluded that "Amazon must not renew it for a second season."  Operation Paperclip was a secret US government program after WWII relocating 88 prominent German scientists to the US and many of them were Nazis.  At the same time, the Russian officials were scheming to get their technology for themselves.

Seven Samurai 1954

     Easily one of the best movies ever made.  It’s fun, smart, enjoyable and there were several reboots.  It does have a long running time and there are some boring parts.  Because of all the action the time seems to go by quickly.  The story elements flow and the events integrate and work really well together and almost flawlessly.  The time period is from the 12th century to the 19th century.  A samurai warrior is a member of a powerful military caste in Feudal Japan.  Especially a member of the class of military retainers of the daimyos, one of the great lords who were vassals fo the shogun.

     This film features a group of samurai who help a farming village defend itself against a gang of bandits.  There are multiple battles and the villagers, samurais and bandits suffer casualties.  Violence is not particularly bloody but it is accentuated through fluid camera movements and slow motion cinematography.  The samurai and the villagers have character flaws but ultimately they all stand together in the face of the ruthless bandits.  The bandits have not moved forward beyond their thieving impulses.  There is strong language in the subtitles but they are sparingly used.  4 1/2* (I liked this movie)

3 hours 27 min, Action directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, also written by Shinobu Hasimoto and Hideo Oguni with Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Daisuke Kato, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi.

Note:  Imdb 8.6* out of 10* with 298,946 views, Roger Ebert 4*, Rotten Tomatoes 100% with 62 critics 97% user Rating with 90,892 reviews, empireonline.com 5*, frenchfilms.com 5* James Travers, Letterboxd 4.5*, Metacritic 98 out of 100 6 critics (6 positive) with 8.8 out of 10 with 363 ratings (327 positive 16 mixed 20 negative), Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 1,761 ratings, Common Sense Media David Gurney, age 13+, 5*, 3* positive, 3* role models, 2* violence, 2* language, 1* drinking, drugs, smoking.
    

A Film Unfinished 2010

    In 1942, more than two years after Nazi troops herded Poland's Jews into a ghetto in Warsaw, a few cameramen were sent to shoot material that was intended to be a German propaganda film.  They filmed scenes of daily life and horrific moments of death and despair.  The film was never completed, without a soundtrack and after the war the unedited footage was discovered in a German archive.  The unfinished German propaganda film titled Das Ghetto was taken two months before the inhabitants were removed from the ghetto.  Five survivors are interviewed and they talk about the film and their lives in the ghetto.   This film became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record.  There is also an elaborate propagandist construction to the film.  A later discovery of a reel that had been missing for a long time complicated earlier interpretations.  This reel shows the manipulations by the camera crews in the supposedly everyday scenes.  There are pictures of wealthy Jews attending elegant dinners and theatrical performances.  They now appear as unwilling but also complicit actors.  They are alternately fearful and also in denial of their own fates. 

    This is a tough film because many of the Jews are starving, some only have rags to wear with others are dressed up and wearing jewelry.  Later, the survivors have a difficult time viewing the scenes.  Many younger Jews were told about the Ghetto in stories from their parents or grandparents.  These stories sounded like they were unbelievable but the film proves that they are true.  When the Russians arrived at a new factory in Germany, they shot all the Poles who had been working as collaborators.  The WWII American veterans played a big role in working with the Jews and securing their freedom.  They gave their lives or returned with permanent scars to the United States after freeing the Jews from the Nazis.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

88 min, documentary directed and written by Yael Hersonski with Hanna Avrutzki, Luba Gewisser, Jurek Plonski, Aliza Vitis-Shomron, Shula Zeder, Janusz Hamerszmit, Eliezer Niborski, Alexander Senderovich, Mendy Cahan, Chava Alberstein, Gera Sandler.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10 with 1,675 views, Rotten Tomatoes 97% with 65 critics 86% with 1,248 user ratings, Slant Magazine 3* out of 4* Andrew Schenker, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 108 ratings, Metacritic 88 out of 100 with 19 critics (19 positive) 7 out of 10 with 13 ratings (10 positive 1 mixed 2 negative, Letterboxd 3.6* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Waswa, Mazowieckie, Poland.  The Warsaw Ghetto housed about 444,000 Polish Jews.  The black & white footage was filmed during May 1942.  The premiere was held at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and it received a World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. 

Nothing but the Truth 2008

     Political columnist Rachel Armstrong writes that the President ignored the findings of a covert CIA operative and ordered air strikes against Venezuela.  Rachel names the agent, Erica Van Doren.  She is a woman with young daughter in Rachel’s son’s class at school.  Rachel is hoping to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this article.  The government moves quickly to force Rachel to name her source.  She is jailed for contempt when she refuses.  The days in jail begin to add up because Rachel won’t change her mind about revealing her source.  Chaos begins to descend on Erica Van Doren’s life.  There is the First Amendment right but there is also national security.  There is marriage and motherhood but also separation.  What is the real value of a principle?

     This is a fictionalized retelling of the outing of a CIA agent.  The reporter writing the story takes a stand about freedom of speech.  She doesn’t cave in to the efforts by the government to make her reveal who told her about these events.  Freedom of the press is crucial and reporters must have the right to tell the truth to the public.  It doesn’t matter if the material contains classified information if the subject has enough importance.  The sources leaking the classified information have broken the law and not the reporter of the news.  But, since 9/11 national security wins over the First Amendment every time.  There is some strong language, a jail inmate beats another inmate, there is cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol, a woman is killed in front of her house, a husband cheats on his wife, a woman is separated from her child.  5* (I really liked this movie)
       
108 min, Crime directed and written by Rod Lurie with Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Angela Bassett, Alan Alda, Vera Farmiga, David Schwimmer, Courtney B. Vance, Noah Wyle, Floyd Abrams, Preston Bailey, Kristen Bouogh, Julie Ann Emery, Robert Harvey, Michael O’Neill, Kristen Shaw.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10 with 35,024 views, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, Rotten Tomatoes 82% with 60 critics 73% audience with 12,769 ratings, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 173ratings, Common Sense Media Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, age 14+ 3* out of 5*, 3* positive, 3* role models, 3* violence, 2* sex, 4* language, 1* drinking, drugs & smoking, Rolling Stone 3* out of 4* Peter Travers. 

Special Note:  There is a scene where Erica Van Doren is given a lie detector test.  The CIA believes that she leaked her own identity.  The test proves that Erica is telling the truth about not leaking her identity.  There is a comment afterwards that it would be possible for a CIA agent to be trained to lie and not be detected by the machine?  This film loosely follows the real-life drama of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.  There is a film about Valerie titled Fair Game in 2010 with Naomi Watts in the role of Valerie.  Floyd Abrams plays the judge in this film and he is also credited as a technical advisor.  In real life Abrams is an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  Filmed in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee; Los Angeles National Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.