The Day I Became a Woman 2000

      This film contains three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of their lives in Iran.  The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday.  She is told that she can no longer play with the boys she usually played with only the day before because she is now a woman.  It is told from the perspective of the 9-year-old girl who does not feel like or know what the word "woman" means?  We see how devastatingly this affects both the girl and the boy who has been her friend.  She is now forced to wear the chador and enter into enforced modesty.
 
     The second part is about a young woman who decides to enter a bicycle race against her husband's wishes.  Ahoo is not riding alone wearing her chador but there are many women in the race.  At first, her husband and then increasing numbers of men from her village ride beside her on horseback to convince her to return home.  The race begins to symbolize a freedom that she desperately wants from the limitations that have been placed on her.  Finally, the third part shows us an elderly woman who has come into some money and she is now free to do what she wants.  The way she chooses to use this money reflects on how she has lived her life.

     Meshkini shows the typical life style in the Makhmalbaf house.  She demonstrates this with a light and personal touch.  Her movie has a dreamy surrealism but it is firmly grounded in the waking world.  There is an urgent advocacy for women's rights and this has not been considered fashionable or relevant in European or Anglophone cinema for many years.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

74 min, comedy directed and written by Marzieh Makhmalbag and also written by Mohsen Makhmalbag with Fatemeh Cherag Akhar, Hassan Nebhan, Shahr Banou Sisizadeh, Ameneh Passand, Shabnan Toloui, Sirous Kahvarinegad, Moharram Zaynalzadeh, Norieh Mahigiran, Azizeh Sedighi, Badr Iravani.

Note:  Imdb 7.3* out of 10* with 1639 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 88% with 59 critic reviews 83% audience scores with 500+ ratings, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, reelingreviews.com Grade B, Metacritic 84 out of 100 with 24 critic reviews,  Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 13 ratings.

Special Note:  This is the first film directed by Marzieh Makhamalbaf.

Mistakes:  In the first sequence, the lollipop that Hava and Hassan pass between them grows and shrinks in size without regard to the passage of time.

Quotes:  Spoken by Osmann:  Ahoo, why have you become rebellious?  Have you had too much sun?  Get off that!  What you're riding is not a bicycle.  It's the devil's work!  Get off that bike, dear. You really shouldn't be riding it.  Spoken by Grandmother:  You mustn't play with Hasan or any boy.  You're all grown up now.  You have to cover up your hair from now on.  Hava, come on down. Come on down.  You're a woman now.  You can't go on the roof.  You can't play with boys any longer.  Spoken by a young boy:  Tell me exactly what you need, madam.  Then I'll take you to the right place.  Spoken by Hoora:  Household goods, you know.  Household goods.  Top priority is a fridge which I've never had.  All my life I wanted cold water.  Now which one was it?  Ah, this one was the fridge.  Let's buy that first.
 

Iron Curtain 1966

      Professor Michael Armstrong is heading to Copenhagen Denmark to attend a physics conference accompanied by his assistant and fiancée Sarah Sherman.  Once they arrive, Michael informs Sarah that he may be staying for awhile and she should return home alone?  She follows him and realizes he's actually heading to East Germany and behind the Iron Curtain.  She is shocked when he announces that he's defecting to the East because the US government cancelled his research project!!  Michael is actually there to obtain information from a renowned East German scientist.  Once he has the information he needs they will make their way back to the West.

     In the book “It’s Only a Movie” Sir Alfred Hitchcock said, "There was an ending written which wasn't used but I rather liked it.  No one agreed with me except my colleague at home (his wife Alma).  Everyone told me that you couldn't have a letdown ending after all that went on previously?  Paul Newman would have thrown the formula away!!  After what he has gone through, after everything we have endured with him and he just tosses it?  It speaks to the futility of it all and it's in keeping with the kind of naiveté of the character.  He is in no way a professional spy who will certainly retire from this type of nefarious business!!

     Looking at these films today, they present a compelling case that Sir Alfred Hitchcock was aware that world cinema had galloped into the future without him.  Luis Buñuel, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Bob Rafelson, Agnes Varda, John Frankenheimer, Mich Nichols and many more directors  were smashing barriers every week.  Hitchcock's tried and true methods of tension building and explosive release had lost a bit of their charm because cinema could show audiences anything it pleased.  Was there still a place for his slightly old fashioned experimentation?  He gave it the old college try with "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz," but mainly his audience was unmoved.  And yet, there's absolutely something to these beguiling late-career works.  They lack the immediacy of Frenzy and the jagged humor of  Family Plot but they show a director who had created thousands of people's ideal cinema and unafraid of looking ahead into an uncertain future.  2 1/2* (This movie is so-so)

128 min, Drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Brian Moore with Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjorg Felmy, Tamara Tourmanova, Ludwig Donath, Wolfgang Kieling, Gunter Strack, David Opatoshu, Gisela Fischer, Mort Mills, Carolyn Conwell, Arthur Gould-Porter, Gloria Govrin.

Note:  Imdb 6.7* out of 10* with 24,958 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 67% with 30 reviews 53% with 5009+ ratings, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 544 ratings, Metacritic 55 out of 100 with 8 critic reviews, 7.3 out of 10 with 8 user scores, Roger Ebert, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 544 reviews.  

Special Note:  In a conversation with Francois Truffaut, Sir Alfred Hitchcock said that he included the fight scene deliberately.  He want to show the audience how difficult it can be to kill a man!!  This is because several spy thrillers at this time made killing look effortless??  Sir Alfred Hitchcock was so unhappy with this movie that he decided not to make a trailer with his appearance in it!!  One of the reasons Sir Alfred Hitchcock did not want to use Paul Newman and Dame Julie Andrews because of their high fees!!  For the rest of his career, Hitchcock would never hire performers with the same level of fee or more.  

The Boys are Back 2009 3*

     The Boys Are Back is a confessional story about fatherhood.  It is about a witty, wisecracking and action-oriented sportswriter.  After his wife's death, he finds himself in a sudden and stultifying state of single parenthood.  Joe Warr throws himself into the only child-rearing philosophy he thinks has a shot at bringing joy back into their lives.  “Just says yes is his parenting style?”  Joe is raising two boys, a curious six year-old and a rebellious teen from a previous marriage. This is in a household devoid of feminine influence.  There is a lack of rules but life becomes exuberant, instinctual, reckless and on the constant verge of disaster.  The three multi-generational boys of the Warr household, father and sons alike must each find their own way whether it is wrong or stressful trying to grow up.

     There's something a little too absent about Joe as the father?  It may or may not be selfishness?  With his son Artie, Joe needs to look and listen more closely.  Just because Joe thinks things are fine doesn't mean they really are?  Clive Owen can be a likable actor but the character he is playing is working against him.  The movie Shine directed by Scott Hicks remains a moving experience but in this film he has all the pieces in place (cast, cinematography, music) but he doesn't quite have the story he thinks he has?  Please, give us a break from the scenes where the ghost of the departed turns up and starts talking as if she's not dead!!!  3* (This movie is OK)

     This is a moving drama about profound loss experienced by both adults and children.  The subject matter could easily overwhelm younger kids and tweens.  A mother’s death is depicted onscreen.  Also is her family's unraveling soon after she's gone.  But, though the journey to healing is messy, a widower makes some questionable parenting choices in the wake of his loss but healing does happen.  It is affecting to watch.  Expect some swearing with only one word used, drinking, kissing and flirting between adults.  3* (This movie is OK)

104 min, Drama directed by Scott Hicks, based on a novel by Simon Carr and  Adapated by Allan Cubitt with Clive Owen, Emma Booth, Laura Fraser, George MacKay, Nicholas McAnulty, Julia Blake, Chris Haywood, Erik Thomson, Natasha Little, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Nakie Pires, Emma Lung, Daniel Carter.

Note:  Imdb 6.8* out of 10* with 9915 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 73% with 126 critic reviews 61% with 10,000+ audience scores, Metacritic 57 out of 100 with 28 critic reviews 5.6 out of 10 with 23 user scores, Roger Ebert 2 1/2*, Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo age 13+, 4* out of 5*, 1* violence, 1* consumerism, 2* sex, language, drinking, drugs & smoking, 3* positive messages,

Special Note:  Tiger Aspect Pictures producer Greg Brenman had director Scott Hicks in mind as the director from the onset.  One of the reasons he wanted Scott was once we had the script he thought back to Shine 1996.  The nine songs by Sigur Ros in the film were initially used as a temporary score.  But, director Scott Hicks felt the music was perfect for the film.  He personally traveled to Iceland to get approval from Sigur Rós to feature the music in the.  The house in the film was built on property in Myponga Beach, South Australia and the plan was to take the house down after filming.  The owners of the property persuaded the producers to leave the house and surrounding areas intact.  It has now been converted into the successful Bed and Breakfast "Brooklyn Farm - Joe's House.”
 

Mary White 1977

     This film is based on the writings of William Allen White.  It is the true story of the relationship between famed author White and his teen aged daughter Mary.  She died in a horseback riding accident at age 16.  It is about the powerful effect the tragedy had on the life of her father.  Both Mary and her father fought against segregation and they were in favor of Women’s Suffrage.   

     In this film about Mary and her family the fact of her death is established right away.  A first‐rate horsewoman, Mary was killed in a freak accident while on a casual ride.  Her brief biography is narrated by her father sometimes directly addressing the camera and sometimes using excerpts from the editorial he wrote about Mary.  It was published in 1921 and featured in the The Emporia Gazette of Emporia Kansas.  White was also the renowned editor of The Emporia Gazette.  This film does not contain sentimentality and it is a moving story and inspirational story about Mary White.  3* (This movie was OK)

102 min, Drama directed by Jud Taylor and written by William Allen White and Caryl Ledner with Ed Flanders, Fionnula Flanagan, Tim Matheson, Donald Moffat, Diana Douglas, Kathleen Beller, Howard McGillin, Kaki Hunter, William Kuhlke, Henry Strozier, Valier Cotton, Paul Frederickson, Jack Meyer.

Note:  Imdb 7.3* out of 10* with 86 reviews, Amazon 3.9* out of 5* with 13 ratings.

Special Note:  In the scene where Mary drives to school, a window air conditioner can be spotted on one of the houses.  In real life, Mary was a high school junior when she died and not a senior.  The White family home was known as "Red Rocks” and it was used in filming.  The Whites were not living there at the time of Mary's death.  A fire earlier that year had destroyed the top floor and the family moved to a nearby house until repairs were completed.

 

Hidden Places 2006

      This film is based on a teleplay by Robert Tate Miller and a novel written by Lynn Austin.  Eliza Wyatt is a widowed California farmer with two children.  She struggles against the odds of the Great Depression to bring in her orange crop and save the only home she's ever known.  When a drifter offers to help, she feels he's the answer to her prayers.  But his polite and well-spoken manner raises questions as well.

      Widowed with two children and beginning to lose her faith, Eliza must bring in the harvest before the bank forecloses on her family’s home.  Just when things can’t get any worse, fate brings along hope in the form of Gabe Harper.  He is a handsome and down-on-his-luck veteran.  Together Eliza and Gabe overcome the odds to save the Wyatt Orchard with the help of stubborn but lovable Aunt Batty and a few generous townsfolk. 

     This is a triumphant tale of faith, family and commitment.  It is a moving drama that exhibits the theme that when people have a need something will happen to satisfy it.  After loosing her husband, Eliza takes in a drifter to help with the harvest.  As the two of them become closer by working together, a question arises?  Are we products of our past or projections of our future?  With the looming prospect of losing her farm to her creditors, Eliza learns that praying can change things!!

86 min, Drama directed by Yelena Lanskaya and written by Robert Tate Miller and Lynn Austin with Sydney Penny, Jason Gedrick, Shirley Jones, Logan Arens, Carlie Westerman, Barry Corbin, Gene Davis, Tom Bosley, Jane Fleiss, John Diehl, Time Winters, James Keane, Donn Markel.

Note:  Imdb 6.4* out of 10* with 474 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 59% with 250+ audience scores, Dove.org 1* sex, violence, nudity, a death, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 180 reviews, The Movie Scene 3* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Both Barry Corbin and Sydney Penny starred in The Thorn Birds 1983.  

Mistakes:  In the beginning, as the camera pans on the homestead, there is an air conditioner in the upstairs window.  It was spotted during production and the intention had been to remove it in post-production but it was not removed?

Mr. Wonderful 1993

     Electrician Gus gets the chance to fulfill a childhood dream by buying an old bowling-alley with some of his friends.  Unfortunately, due to the alimony payments he has to make to his ex-wife Leonora, the bank refuses to loan him the down payment.  Knowing that when she marries again she loses her alimony rights, Gus tries to speed things up by bringing Leonora together with all the potential husbands he can find.  Although this approach isn't very successful, it awakens feelings in both of them they didn't know they still had.     

     To believe in the scheme Gus has going on and Lee’s willingness to go along with it is a strain on audience intelligence?   Vincent d’Onofrio, Brooke Smith and Bruce Kirby are especially fine in smaller roles.  But, they have to play this nonsense as if it really made sense?  Without a lot of cast effort and Dillon’s easy charm, Mr. Wonderful could easily be mistaken for Mr. Potatohead instead!!

     Mr. Wonderful is not a dynamic film by any means but it is a semi-sweet, semi-love story with adequate performances.  In spite of the film’s romantic promise, it is clouded by sexual involvement outside of marriage.  It does show but unintentionally, how shallow such involvement is and how it destroys trust and undermines true intimacy.  Without this element, as well as some frank sexual discourse and a few obscenities, this film could be a very pleasant and enjoyable selection. Too bad it is not!!  3* (This movie is OK)

Note:  Imdb 5.9* out of 10* with 3135 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 52% with 21 critic reviews 43% with 2,500+ audience scores, Letterboxd 2.8* out of 5*, 1 1/2* Roger Ebert, movieguide.org language moderate, violence none, sex light, nudity, light, Mr. Wonderful 4.7* out of 5* with 312 reviews.  

Special Note:  Actress Annabella Sciorra would later play James Gandolfini’s love interest for 7 episodes on The Sopranos (1999).  Bruce Altman and Fran Pellegrinow would also appear on The Sopranos.  

Mistakes:  As a hired public-works servicemen, Gus and his co-worker would have been wearing OSHA-approved safety-goggles when servicing the fuse-bank, since there were such large sparks present?  The bright-sparking flash that represents electrical-arcing and it only occurs after Gus completely removes the fuse.  There would only be a spark during the actual "removal moment" while the fuse was in the act of breaking the electrical circuit.
 

Tetro 2009

     The week of his 18th birthday, Bennie is working as a waiter on a cruise ship that has a layover in Buenos Aires.  He looks for his older brother Tetro and he hasn't seen him in years.  Tetro lives with Miranda and he is a person that is burned out?  He's hot and cold toward his brother and he introduces him as a “friend?"  He refuses to talk about their family and he tells Bennie not to tell Miranda who their father is?  Thoughts about their father cast a shadow over both brothers.  Who is he and what kind of past has Tetro left behind?  Bennie finds pages of Tetro's unfinished novel.  He pushes both to know his own history and to become a part of his brother's life again.

     What result can come because of Bennie's pushing?  This is certainly a strangely conceived film where some product placements land with a thud?  The festival's trophy happens to be designed by the jeweler Swarovski.  It is here that the final revelatory twist is unveiled.  It is a twist that is actually less interesting than what has gone on before?   Entering a "competition" is a pretty hokey plot device and one more associated with urban dance movies?   But this movie's bigger problem is being weighed down with what it evidently considers to be its sheer mythic potency?   But it is overwrought, baffling and unexciting.  The flashbacks to their father are in color but the rest of the movie is in monochrome?  The switch is not particularly effective but instead it is very disconcerting?  Carlo's father and bespectacled brother Alfie are also played by Brandauer and yet it is not made clear that Alfie is Carlo's twin?  This effect is almost like one actor playing different family members in a movie without any explanation?

     Coppola has done better with father-son and quasi-father-son relationships in the past.  Compare the dullness and pedantry of the characterization in Tetro with Vito and Michael Corleone in the Godfather movies or Willard and Kurtz in Apocalypse Now?  The very redundancy of the motif points to an evasive fictional rendering of the director's own issues and a kind of public family therapy?   It is uncomfortable to notice that the second-unit director here is Coppola's son, Roman?  He is a talented film-maker whose feature film CQ made a real impression at Cannes almost 10 years ago but he has not been very prominent since then.  The way ahead could be for Coppola to stay away from personal themes.  Family isn't  always everything?

 
127 min, Drama directed and written by Francis Ford Coppola and and also written by Mauricio Kartun with Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich, Maribel Vrdu, Silvia Perez, Rodrigo De la Serna, Erica Rivas, Mike Amigorena, Lucas Di Conza, Adriana Mastrangelo, Leticia Bredice, Sofia Gala Castiglione, Jean-Francois Casanovas, Carmen Maura, Francesca De Sapio.

Imdb 6.8* out of 10 with 12,543 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 71% with 109 critic reviews 70% with 10,000+ audience scores, Roger Ebert 3*, The Guardian 1* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Metacritic 65 out of 100 with 26 critic reviews 6.7 out of 10 with 32 user scores, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 127 reviews.

Special Note:  Francis Ford Coppola claimed that this is the kind of film he set out to make as a young man before he became sidetracked by fame and fortune.  In September 2007, thieves broke into Coppola’s home studio in Buenos Aires and stole all the electronics.  This included his computer with the film's script but it didn't affect production.  Coppola said "Anyone who's gotten robbed, it's always depressing and I did lose some data but I didn't lose the script.  It was said that the script was gone but I had other copies.  Obviously, I had to send copies to actors and staff plus I was astonished that it got such news coverage.”

Mistake:  Early in the movie Tetro stumbles into the kitchen with a broken leg?  He knocks over some furniture while lighting a cigarette using a burner on the stove.  He ignites the burner by just turning the knob on the stove.  A few minutes later, Miranda must use a match to light a burner on the same stove-top?