Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino. If you don’t know who that is, you’ve been asleep at the movies. He won best original screenplay for this 2012 fictional film, Django Unchained, which takes place in America two years prior to the Civil War. Christoph Waltz won his second Academy Award for best supporting actor in this gruesome tale.

Tarantino’s movies are violent. It is rated R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language, and some nudity. Django (Jamie Foxx) is one of several slaves being transported somewhere, walking barefoot, chains around their ankles, when German dentist Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) accosts the group. He quickly convinces the slave traders to sell him Django, once he’s determined that Django could spot the men he is after for a bounty, dead or alive. He then frees him, not approving of slavery.

Thus begins the partnership of Django and Dr. Schultz. They team up to hunt down white men who are bank robbers, cattle rustlers, etc. and shoot them dead. Django has a wife, Hilde (Kerry Washington), who has been sold to slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo diCaprio) on a plantation in Mississippi. Dr. Schultz encourages Django to find her offering his assistance.

The blood bath begins. Blood is splattered everywhere, over the white balls of cotton in the hot fields, over the houses and clothing of anyone unlucky enough to be in the way. If this film doesn’t make you want gun control, nothing will. You’ll need a strong stomach to watch the cruelty dealt out by wicked slaveholders.

The reason perhaps why this film won an award is that it is written very well, utilizing the legend of Siegfried and Brunhilde, saved from the dragon. Hilde speaks German due to ownership by a previous German slave owner, and can converse with Dr. Schultz effectively.

Christoph Waltz brilliantly plays the character of Dr. King Schultz. The dialogue is written so engagingly and he never comes out of character. He played a Nazi in Tarantino’s film Inglorious Bastards, (his first Academy Award winning role) a sort of cathartic film where we get to watch Nazis being terminated by a group of volunteers. Yes, we hate the Nazis and we hate slave owners, so seeing them get blown away gives some satisfaction, but it doesn’t really do the job.

For that, we still have to fight racism and racial profiling, and intolerance of religious groups for which some are still at risk and are killed for even today. It is not enough to watch this film. I wonder if Mr. Tarantino does anything to fight intolerance and injustice other than make his films. I hope so.

I do recommend this film if you’re a screenwriter who can also stomach the blood shed. It harkens back to old Westerns made in the beginnings of cinema in America, and the music accents the action quite well. Expertly filmed, it is often visually appealing, showing the Western landscape, the mountains and rivers that are still so beautiful today.

Crash

Written and directed by Paul Haggis, the drama Crash from 2004 won Best Film, Best Original Screenplay (for Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco), and Best Film Editing at the Academy Awards. It is rated R for language, sexual content, and some violence. It employs an ensemble cast whose characters weave in and out of each other’s lives over a 36-hour period in Los Angeles.

This film has at its core an examination of racism and prejudice. The characters are a cross-section of America in ethnicity, social class, and religion. Police officers figure prominently in this tale of tragedy and thankfully, in some cases, redemption.

The best most heart wrenching moments in the film are those with Daniel (Michael Pena), a Hispanic locksmith with a young daughter Lara (Ashlyn Sanchez). He faces discrimination for nothing more than basically sporting tattoos on his person from Jean (Sandra Bullock), who has the locks changed on her home after being carjacked at gunpoint with her husband, district attorney Rick (Brendan Fraser). She suspects Daniel’s a gang member and can’t be trusted to change the locks in her home. While Daniel works on a job at a convenience store, an encounter with the shop owner Farhad (Shaun Toub) creates such bitterness in Farhad’s soul that he goes after Daniel. This was a brilliant piece of writing that translated well to the screen.

Despite a best original screenplay win, some of the dialogue feels a bit didactic. Maybe it’s the delivery, or just that there was so much to delineate and say about race relations in LA that it couldn’t come off as more natural sounding dialogue. Again, the story lines about Daniel and Farhad are the most genuine and natural and well performed. A lot of the other characters are just spouting off long diatribes about the state of affairs in LA and really all of America in terms of race and prejudice.  In the 13 years since Crash was released, not much has changed in terms of some still harboring fear and prejudice of anyone who is different from them in terms of sexual orientation, religion or race.

Other cast members include Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Thandie Newton, Terrance Howard, Loretta Devine, and Tony Danza. They were cast well in their roles and all do a good job with the situations they were asked to portray.

Crash is the kind of film where you really have to pay attention to every encounter, and then at the end, the missing links between the characters come around full circle. I basically like the film despite its preachy message. About every ethnic group is represented here; African-Americans at two extremes of social class, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, white privileged upper class, and basically working class law enforcement. The weaving back and forth between stories works to draw the viewer along and stay engaged with the film. You’re always wondering what will happen next to the person on screen, and to the relationships between the characters.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a fine cinematic offering released in 2014 from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, also the director of Gravity and The Revenant. Birdman is a tale of one man’s attempt to create something he believes will have a lasting impact on the world.

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) has had a career in filmmaking, most notably as the superhero Birdman. He writes a play based on a short story by esteemed author Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The play is in rehearsals with opening night on Broadway fast approaching when we meet Riggan struggling to both direct and star in his play.

Sam (Emma Stone), Riggan’s daughter, works for him as a sort of gofer running errands, and she is one angry young lady fresh out of rehab. His ex-wife Sylvia (Amy Ryan) comes for a visit, and further complicating his life, his three fellow actors are all neurotic and self-absorbed: Mike (Edward Norton) is a handful of ego driven charisma, who harasses his former lover Lesley (Naomi Watts) on stage and off, and Riggan’s much younger lover Laura (Andrea Riseborough) is jealous and insecure. His manager Jake (Zach Galifianakis) tries to keep things steady for Riggan, but chaos tends to follow him everywhere.

The story works well, alternating between Riggan’s direction of the play and his inner musings, or rather possession, by his alter ego Birdman. The story effectively ridicules the super hero genre, and the movie-going public’s questionable intelligence in gravitating towards those types of films.

Broadway is painted to be an ego filled place, from the critics who can make or break an opening, to the actors who constantly wonder if they are good enough for the stage. The film is confined mostly to the theater, the back stage behind the scenes workings of the production, and to the actors’ dressing rooms that serve as sanctuary and a place to vent their angst. The camera often follows the actor down hallways and through the depths of the theater in one smooth take, serving to unite the action with the character’s internal progression as the tension builds and Riggan reaches the point of breaking.

I really enjoyed this film. I saw it in the theater when it first came out, and liked it on DVD again. All the acting is superb, especially Edward Norton as the self-confident actor whose inner core is not so strong when he’s not on stage. He and Michael Keaton have some really intense scenes together, very well played by both.

Inarritu has proven himself to be an excellent screenwriter and director. Birdman walked away with four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki.

I recommend Birdman for anyone interested in the theater, as well as the psychology of the inner creative self. The film is rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief violence. It is not a film for children.

American Beauty

… sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.              ~ from American Beauty

So pleased to be watching this tour de force again for the challenge! From 1999, American Beauty scored with five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay for Alan Ball, Best Actor for Kevin Spacey, Best Director Sam Mendes, and Best Cinematography for Conrad L. Hall.

Rated R for strong sexuality, language, violence and drug content, this is not a film for the kiddies.

Alan Ball went on to produce and pen scripts for the acclaimed HBO series’ Six Feet Under and True Blood on HBO. I never watched Six Feet Under, but did watch all of True Blood. Alan is not one to skirt around the issues. He can talk about the hard stuff, things no one else wants to discuss or acknowledge.

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a 42-year-old businessman with a super driven career wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), and a teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch). Their home is not so perfect as the décor and civility might suggest to the outside eye. Lester is reaching a midlife crisis, Carolyn despairs of ever being as great a real estate agent as Buddy Kane, (Peter Gallagher), and Jane is at a defiant awkward stage in high school.

Big changes happen when the house next door is sold to a new family. Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) is an 18 year old who attends high school with Jane and her bff Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). Ricky’s father, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper) and his nearly catatonic wife Barbara (Allison Janney), make for a strange couple.

In many respects, this is an ensemble cast, even though only Kevin won the acting award. The three teens are brilliant in his or her roles, as is everyone. Chris Cooper especially gives it his all as the abusive ex military man. If I could give them all awards I would. This has to be one of my top favorite films. The writing is superb; the color resolution and the visuals in the fantasy sequences are outstanding. Interesting to note that Lester has a voice over, an uncommon choice in film.

When it first came out, a friend of mine with a teenage girl saw it and was really disturbed by Lester’s infatuation with Angela. I can understand that, and that is exactly why it was brought forward in the film. Lester has some decisions to make. Ricky stays focused on the beauty of the world, even when it is ugly (what most people would see as ugly). The rosebushes Carolyn nourishes with eggshells and Miracle Grow, the faded roses on her shirt at the dinner table, and the bright rose petals in Lester’s fantasies all serve to tie the theme of American Beauty together.

If you haven’t seen it and want to see a really fine all around production based on a great screenplay, this is it.

Stardust

I had not heard of the film Stardust until my neighbor brought the DVD over one night for my husband and I to watch together. Ian McClellan narrated this 2007 adventure/fantasy from England where the characters travel to different worlds in search of love and family.

My neighbor described it as being reminiscent of The Princess Bride. It has been years and years since I saw that film, but I recalled it as having some good humor to it. This film was also funny in the situations that arose and the dialogue between the characters.

Young Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) decides to travel beyond “the Wall” that is a barrier between the town in which he lives and another world, where no one is ever to visit. He wishes to find a star to present to the object of his affections, a vapid young lady named Victoria (Sienna Miller). Beyond his small town, on the other side of the wall, is Stormhold, a world of magic and intrigue. He soon meets pretty Yvaine (Clair Danes), and they set off together on a journey that will test them.

This journey brings them into the paths of witches, who are a trio of aged sisters led by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), as well as seven princes all vying for the throne as their father (Peter O’Toole) languishes on his deathbed. The crown must be passed to a male heir and besides that, their only sister has disappeared years ago. Two actors I recognized, Rupert Everett, and Ricky Gervais, lend great comic humor to their characters. Surprising developments have all these players on their three separate journeys or quests, colliding into one shared journey in the least likely of star-crossed stories.

Tristan and Yvaine at one point find themselves the reluctant passengers of a vessel plying the skies guided by Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro). This captain’s role is one of the funniest and most entertaining of all, and a great character for De Niro to inhabit.

Tristan must grow up quickly and turn himself from victim to champion in his quest for the star. As could be predicted, he and Yvaine are getting along famously, and this beautiful star that has a glowing countenance, especially around Tristan, finds herself in the earthly world that she has only ever been able to look at from afar.

I thought the special effects were good for the type of scenes that were staged, and quite fun. The magical kingdoms are quite wondrous with all the fantasy one could dream up.

The screenplay is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman. The film is rated PG-13 for some fantasy violence and risqué humor. It was filmed in Scotland and Iceland, and the scenery is breathtaking, very desolate and wild.

I liked Stardust. It was a sweet fantastical film, one that can take you far away from your current circumstances and place you in a world of danger, intrigue, magic and most importantly, of love. I recommend it.

Academy Award Winners for Best Original Screenplay

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is fast approaching! Last April, I participated with daily entries on my Family Reunion Keepsake Book blog (link on the right). This year I will be blogging from A to Z on my movie review blog, A Movie for Every Mood. Twenty-six unique and informative movie reviews for your entertainment and educational pleasure.

The theme for my A-Z reviews focuses on films that won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The process I used in selecting the 26 films was to look at a list of all the winning and nominated films in this category, scanning back in time from present to past in order to find one winning film for each letter. Some letters were not available as a best original screenplay win, but I was able to use some films that at least were nominated in that category (finding XYZ was challenging, but I found them!).

Whether you are a screenwriter yourself, or an avid movie lover, there is something for everyone in my reviews. No spoilers, lots of film history, and musings about what makes a film memorable.

I invite you to join me in April as we look at some truly great films. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

The Brothers Grimm

Matt Damon and Heath Ledger; how could it go wrong? The Brothers Grimm is a fantasy stemming from the tales of the famous children’s fairy tale authors, the Grimm brothers. It was directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. It’s a comedy/fantasy about the two con men/brothers who ostensibly help villagers rid themselves of supernatural disturbances.

It is 1796 and Wilhelm “Will” (Matt Damon) and Jacob “Jake” Grimm (Heath Ledger) find themselves in the village of Marbaden encountering a very real supernatural spell, with children having disappeared, including Little Red Riding Hood and Gretel among others. With the help of an independent, spirited young female guide Angelika (Lena Headey), they traverse the forest that has enchantment throughout.

I started to fall asleep. This is very rare, my falling asleep during a movie, so that is not a good sign. Matt Damon sounded like he was copying Heath Ledger’s Australian accent, and Heath played the wimpy younger brother well. They were in period dress, and it seemed odd to watch Matt Damon with that hair and costuming.

What did stand out were the special effects. The forest that was very much alive was teeming with all types of creepy, crawly bugs, lots of them. I don’t like bugs and didn’t like that much. There are other scenes where people turn to glass and shatter, which was pretty spectacular.

I seem to recall that in my childhood I had a worn copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Whether they were whitewashed like the Disney movies or remained true to the original “grim” stories, I can’t recall. But the fairy tales they wrote were kind of horrific. Think about Little Red Riding Hood for instance. She is stalked by a wolf in her grandmother’s clothing, and barely escapes with her life. Hansel and Gretel are about to be eaten by a cannibalistic witch (if you can equate a witch in their tale with being human), all scary and dismal stories. No doubt intended to keep kids on the straight and narrow to behave, not wander away lest they suffer a fate worse than death.

Maybe I was just tired; I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. As I mentioned earlier, I am a great fan of both Damon’s and Ledger’s work, but I found myself thinking some other actors would have been better in these roles, less famous perhaps as their acting legends precede them and they were always so recognizable as themselves.

The film is rated PG-13 for violence, frightening sequences, and brief suggestive material. The Mirror Queen (Monica Bellucci) is responsible for some of this as it is her goal to drink the blood of 12 young girls to restore her beauty.

If you like fantasy, you might enjoy The Brothers Grimm. It was a clever story after all, supposing that the brothers’ inspiration for their fairy tales was actually real supernatural events. If you’ve seen the film, please leave a comment on what you thought of it. Thanks!

I Am Not Your Guru

“Life happens for you, not to you.”                        ~ Tony Robbins

I read a small book by Anthony “Tony” Robbins once that a friend of mine gave me. I found it inspiring, and his suggestions good. Hard to follow, but sound.

The Netflix feature length documentary, Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, follows Tony through a weeklong event called Date With Destiny, which was held in Boca Raton, Florida. Joe Berlinger, a documentary filmmaker, directs it. Tony gives conferences worldwide and this was just one of the many offerings he schedules for his followers.

The film is not rated, but I’d give it an R rating as it features very liberal use of the f-word by Tony during the event. He explained that all cultures have certain taboo words, and when he uses these taboo words, it keeps people in the present and engaged. Perhaps.

Over 2,500 people attend an event such as this, paying over $4,000 each to attend. That should give you an idea about the financial status of people he attracts. Tony has a fleet of helpers, some of whom are assigned to groups of people as a kind of moderator or group leader for the individual, and for the group exercises they engage in when not in the main convention area listening to Tony.

I had heard some of Tony’s background previously; his growing up in poverty in an abusive home, a bout with homelessness that inspired him to “sculpt” his life and his persona so his family will never have to endure such deprivations or angst.

I found the documentary fascinating. Some really troubled people, abused themselves, attend these conventions and we see their sharing and Tony’s response live. I found him to be authentic, compassionate, intuitive and sometimes unpredictable. Participants bring other members of the audience to tears, as they sometimes did me. Tony says change can happen in a moment. And for some in the audience, it did.

Unconventional in his approach, he apparently has a wide following. I liked some of what he was saying. He says he’s not just a positive thinker kind of guy, and seems to really emphasize action.

I thought there was a good balance of private talks with Tony (for the viewer to get some of his personal history), live coverage of the event and of what the participants were doing, along with updates on the few individuals who had interventions with Tony that were a focus in the film.

I have a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and have spent many years as a therapist in all types of situations. After watching this documentary, I would caution you to take what you need and leave the rest. I didn’t care for every technique Tony used to help people, but some of what he was advocating are things I will use in my own life. I recommend it if you have a curiosity about psychology, the science of change, or just about people and their stories.

The Breakfast Club

I had the opportunity to see the 80’s teen movie The Breakfast Club at a special screening recently. It was to help launch the publication of Kevin Smokler’s book, Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to ‘80s Teen Movies. Kevin was there along with John Hughes son James for Q&A following the film.

I was familiar already with The Breakfast Club having seen this John Hughes classic when it was originally released in 1985. It is rated R.

Five teens labeled as delinquent are sentenced to an entire Saturday in the high school library for various infractions. Supervised by slimy Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), they spend eight-plus hours getting to know each other, some for the first time.

There’s Clair Standish (Molly Ringwald), a pampered girl in the clique everyone wants to be in; Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), an athlete hoping to get into college on a wrestling scholarship; Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), the brainy kid not in the popular kids world; John Bender (Judd Nelson), the bad boy with the mouth; and Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), a wallflower unseen and unheard.

We are let in on their innermost secrets as they bond and open up to each other during their imprisonment. Judd Nelson plays John brilliantly. Everyone is good, but he really shines. It was very uncomfortable watching him verbally abuse the other teens, and especially his sexualized harassment of Claire. It has been a long time since I watched this film, and none of that is funny. At the same time, we feel for John, how he grew into the bad boy through nothing other than the parents he was born to. Judd has continued to work as an actor, but this was his most notable role.

Emilio Estevez has gone on to be a writer and director, helming the films The Way and Bobby. Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy have continued to work as actresses, and Anthony Michael Hall has appeared in The Dead Zone.

Some of the discussion after the film focused on the ethnic makeup of the group of students, all white from the suburbs of Chicago. Back in 1985, that town would be all white. Today, it would be much more diverse ethnically, and be a different film. The issue of inclusion is a big one due to the discussions at the Academy Awards to be more diverse for ethnic and LGBTQ actors. John Hughes films reflected the times of 30 some years ago, and the times, they have changed.

Even so, if you’re a student of film, or even just a film lover, The Breakfast Club is a must see. Much more serious than some of John Hughes’ other films like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and the Home Alone movies, it peers intimately at high school age adolescents and really gets in their psyches and what that stage of life is for them.

Give Kevin Smokler’s book a look too. You can order it by clicking on this link: Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to '80s Teen Movies

Manchester by the Sea

The landscape in Manchester by the Sea is as much a character as are any of the actors. Taking place on the Eastern seaboard, we accompany the cast through the seasons, the dead of winter to the hopefulness of early spring. We watch as the family’s boat, the Claudia Marie chugs out to sea. The quaint town where close-knit families live and grow and die is a part of the story.

Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is living in Boston, working as a handyman in an apartment building, when he hears the news that his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has passed away. He travels to Manchester and thus begins a journey of coming home to the town of his childhood and early adulthood.

Joe has left behind a teenage son Patrick (Lucas Hedges) and has given Lee guardianship. This is problematic for Lee who doesn’t really want to be in Manchester due to the ghosts of memories that haunt him. Lee has suffered through tragedy so extreme, I’m kind of surprised he managed to stay alive. But he rises to the mandate of his brother and sets into motion actions that will keep Patrick safe.

Randi Chandler (Michelle Williams), Lee’s ex-wife, enters the scene as she attends Joe’s memorial service and later the funeral. This couple’s shared tragedy is so horrific, and yet their scene together where Randi tries to heal from it with Lee is so touching, and the best acting in the whole film.

The contrast between Patrick and Lee in how the death of their father and brother is handled is quite distinct. Patrick has the hope and dreams of a young man, whereas Lee has given up hope and has settled for a marginalized sort of existence, isolated from others. Will Patrick help to move Lee towards reengaging with society? With his small circle of family and friends? You will have to see it for yourself.

This film is rated R for language throughout and some sexual content. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges. It won Best Actor for Casey Affleck, and Best Original Screenplay for Kenneth Lonergan.

The film moves through every detail of Lee dealing with arrangements after Joe’s death. Thoughtful and sparing us nothing, it shows the grief and stress that go along with a sudden death. Even if you know it’s coming, you’re never prepared for when it actually happens and someone suddenly vanishes from your life.

When I saw the film, I knew why Casey Affleck was nominated, as well as Michelle Williams. Their performances were spot on, and they managed to make it seem like they weren't even acting; it was so natural and real. Lucas Hedges gave an excellent performance in his role as well. He has a good future ahead of him. I recommend you see Manchester by the Sea. It is a story that is well written and painfully real.

Arrival

I was looking forward to seeing the film Arrival. It was promoted as an intellectual sort of film about aliens, with little in the way of explosions and death, and more on the level of cerebral discourse.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I came away wondering if something was lost in the adaptation. The screenplay was based on a short story by Ted Chiang, Story of Your Life. Sometimes it is hard to translate the written word into a visual representation onscreen, and I suspected this might have been a problem of translation, in terms of the written word onto the screen.

One screen adaptation I really enjoyed was The Shawshank Redemption. The screenplay was based on a short story by Stephen King called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. I read the story after having seen the film and the screenwriter did an exemplary job translating it to a full-length film. This film was not up to that standard. I am going to read Story of Your Life, and determine for myself how this film could have been better.

Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is selected to travel to a site in Montana where a spaceship has landed in order to hopefully communicate with the aliens. The pod shaped spaceship is just one of twelve that has mysteriously descended upon the earth. She is a linguist, and to me her willingness to face the aliens is never fully explored. What has made her such a daring young woman to go there with no support from anyone she knows?

Also in attendance is a physicist, Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), reporting along with Louise to Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker). If someone doesn’t figure out why the aliens have come to earth, war against them will commence.

What I did like was the depiction of the communication by the aliens. They were shooting out what looked like ink from their octopus looking appendages, kind of in a Rorschach inkblot way, and it was Louise’s job as a linguist to interpret or crack their language in order to see what these pod aliens wanted.

I thought that Louise and Ian’s relationship was not fully explored as the days progressed, and I think that was a mistake. It would have added more to the film and helped fill in the blanks. The film has to do with time, how modern society is aware of time passing in a linear fashion, whereas quantum physics postulate that time exists all at once, perhaps inter dimensionally?

The film is rated PG-13 for brief strong language. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing. It won only Best Achievement in Sound Editing, not that it is a small award, just that it was the only one of eight they were nominated for that won. I’d recommend you watch the other nominated films first and leave this one for last, for when you have the time.

Moonlight

Moonlight has been so highly lauded (it won Best Drama at the Golden Globes this year), I wanted to be sure I saw it before the awards on Sunday. I was not disappointed. What really made this movie shine was the acting. I have seldom seen such range of emotion from literally every major character in a film. They brought the story of a disadvantaged African-American youth to life for us with poignancy and passion.

The story of Chiron is presented in three vignettes, the first when he is just a nine-year-old boy called Little (Alex Hibbert), mercilessly bullied by his “friends” and ignored by his drug addicted single mother, Paula (Naomie Harris). With no father around, a chance meeting with Juan (Mahershala Ali) gives him a substitute father figure for a while. Juan is a drug dealer with a heart. He takes to Chiron and may be that one influence that gave some stability to Chiron’s young life when none was available.

We next see Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) as an awkward teenager, still the brunt of harassment by his schoolmates. When Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) befriends him, he finds in him a friend and someone he can open up to. Their loving encounter makes a lasting impression on Chiron.

The final part of Chiron’s story is when he is an adult. He has shaped himself into a strong, assertive man, following in the footsteps of his father figure Juan. What impresses in this final chapter we see of Chiron (Ashton Sanders), is that Kevin (Andre Holland) contacts him after several years. The interactions between the two friends are done so well by the actors, and the compassion and love between them is poignant and beautiful. They both should have been nominated for best supporting actor for their performances.

The film is rated R for some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, and language throughout. It is nominated for eight Academy Awards: Best Picture and Director, Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, Best adapted screenplay, cinematography, film editing, and original score.

The score is beautifully haunting, and serves to accentuate the actions of the characters, in a way that is both noticeable and yet unobtrusive. I found it fascinating that three different actors played Chiron and Kevin. That is to be expected given the years involved. Somehow they were all believable. I found myself thinking this really could be the grown up Chiron, the teen Chiron, so sensitive and vulnerable, driven to do what he had to do to survive, to get along in the world he was born into.

Tomorrow we’ll find out how many awards Moonlight will win at the Oscars this year. My favorite is still La La Land for Best Picture. Moonlight will be remembered for a very long time by filmgoers who have the opportunity to see it. It is beautiful in its depiction of humanity, the bad as well as the good that overcomes. I highly recommend you see it.

Lion

Lion has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay for Luke Davies. Lion is rated PG-13 for thematic material and some sensuality.

This is one film you won’t want to miss. Based on a true story, it tells the journey of Saroo (Sunny Pawar), a boy from India who is tragically separated from his family at the age of five years. He wandered the streets of Calcutta alone, meeting other children and adults, narrowly escaping those who would use him for their own private gain or perversions.

He is adopted by an Australian couple, John (David Wenham) and Sue Brierley (Nicole Kidman), and brought up in the beautiful island countryside of Tasmania, and by all appearances, adjusts well to his new family.

When he becomes older, he goes to Melbourne, Australia to continue his schooling, and there meets a diverse group of students that become his friends, including his girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara). This exposure to other cultures, particularly the food of India, brings back a flood of memories. When he opens up to his friends, they encourage him to search for his family, and even give helpful suggestions of how he could go about doing this.

It seems like searching for a needle in a haystack. Saroo only recalls bits and pieces of his lost five year old memories, cannot find the name of the little village he lived in on a map, and is discouraged at his lack of progress. Thank goodness for Google Maps and some accurate calculations to at least narrow down his search area, or he may never have begun his search.

More than Saroo’s search, Lion is a look into the adoptive family, Saroo’s feelings and his brother’s feelings about being adopted, as well as his adoptive parents who took him in. Nicole Kidman does a wonderfully sensitive portrayal of the woman who graciously and whole-heartedly took these boys into her home. Saroo was very lucky to have such parents.

I highly recommend that you see Lion. Dev Patel deserves his nomination as he delivers a highly nuanced performance. He shows the many emotions and struggles Saroo went through during the process of his searching. I really enjoyed his work in the series The Newsroom, and his vibrancy in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing much more of him in cinema land.

There are estimated to be 80,000 children going missing in India each year, and 11,000,000 children living on the streets in India. The Lion Heart Campaign is collaborating with extraordinary organizations to support children in India and around the world. We can all help, and one way to begin to build awareness is to encourage others to see this excellent film about Saroo’s journey. Then go to: Lion movie for information on how you can help protect street children through the Lion Heart Campaign.

Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer, and Best Adapted Screenplay at this year’s Academy Awards. Based on real events, and real African-American women, the film chronicles their work at NASA when the push to get a man into space was a priority.

It was 1961, and a number of African-American women were employed at Langley as mathematicians. Remember this was pre-computer era; in fact, IBM was just delivering the first computer system to NASA at this time.

The Russians were the first to get a man as well as that little dog into space, and the U. S. needed to follow suit promptly. This was the Cold War, and the fear of Russian missiles aimed down on America from space was a very real fear.

Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) is the chief of the program, supervising a team of white males until math genius Katherine Johnson (Taraji Henson) comes on board. Her two closest friends also work at NASA, Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae). Civil rights for blacks in America is in the forefront, and the struggle does not omit the women who work in a predominantly while male world in the space program.

The chipping away at prejudice and degrading practices is depicted for all the women, and it’s really a mutual enlightening for the management and coworkers of the women. I’m not going to go into detail on this because you need to see it happening for yourself in this film.

The other thing I found fascinating was these scientists and mathematicians put John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit around the earth without computers! All using calculating machines, pencils and paper, huge equations that certainly did not make sense to me on gigantic chalkboards. The extent to which they persevered and made it work is incredible.

Dorothy and Mary take their careers into their own hands and strive to further educate themselves. These women are shining examples for all little girls to see, so they too can believe in themselves and not ever give up.

They were not unlike most women today who have to juggle work and children either. Added in is the discrimination that was rampant and waiting to be torn down.

The film is rated PG for thematic elements and some language. The costume design and settings were authentically crafted. I loved seeing all those rows of now vintage automobiles in the Langley parking lot, and the clothing the women wore was a blast from the past. Skirts and heels, and the men all wore suits. Sometimes I really long for those days when even to go to the grocery store, people dressed like they deserved respect.

It is sad that discrimination and prejudice are still undercurrents of American society. Although some things have changed, there is much still to be done. This film and others like it brings to awareness the inestimable contributions of those women of color that until now have been Hidden Figures.

Oscar Nominated Short Films

A category of award at the Oscars that is fun to seek out prior to the big night are the Oscar Nominated Short Films. They have three categories: Live Action, Animation, and Documentary. Running time is 40 minutes or less for each nominated film.

They may be playing now at your local theater. I went to the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque to see the Animated shorts. They are playing through February 13^th, and then the Documentary shorts will be screened beginning February 14^th (just in time for date night on Valentine’s Day!), followed by Live Action shorts beginning on February 17^th.  Follow the Guild Cinema at:  Guild Cinema Albuquerque

 

In addition to viewing the films in a theater, the nominated Live Action and Animation short films will also be available to buy online and on VOD/Pay Per View Platforms (AT&T, DirecTV, COMCAST, Cable Vision, XBOX, Sony, Century Link, Vimeo, Frontier & Google Fiber) so you can obtain them through these sources if they are not playing in your area.

I highly recommend making the effort to see these little gems. Often, filmmakers get a start in their career making these shorter films that they can show as hard evidence of their storytelling abilities, filmmaking, and directing skills, or production capabilities. They each have an intriguing story to tell and you can watch all the nominated films in one sitting, unlike going back and forth to the theater to watch the nominated much longer Best Picture films.

Disney or Pixar has been nominated every year for the last six years, winning two awards out of those six nominations. Not as well known production companies created the others, and the types of animation used can be quite experimental, not techniques I am very familiar with.

This year, I very much enjoyed the Animated shorts. There were the five nominated films shown along with three other honorable mention shorts. They were so diverse in terms of the techniques of animation that were used. Everything from a classic Pixar offering, to really different line drawings that come alive, to sketches that look like someone is creating them right on the screen. I don’t pretend to know anything about how animation is created; I just know I enjoy it, possibly like everyone who ever grew up watching cartoons on TV.

My question to all of you is how would you vote for the best-animated short? Would you give the largest percentage of your decision over to the type of animation it utilizes? Or would you go with which story tugged at your heartstrings the most? A well-developed story in such a brief amount of time is an art. Technique, style, and content all played a role in what was chosen out of the 70 films that qualified for the competition in the 2017 nominations for animated shorts.

I’ll be going back to the Guild Cinema this week to view the Documentary shorts, and later the Live Action shorts. I encourage you to seek these out. You won’t be disappointed.

Neruda

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was a great poet from Chile, and an inspiration to the masses when rights for all workers were in question. He was also a notorious Communist. In 1971, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Back in 1994, I watched the Italian film Il Postino: The Postman, where a young man is inspired by Neruda to write his own poetry and to become politically active. It is a beautiful film that won my heart and the hearts of many others, as well as winning numerous awards. Il Postino is a fictional tale, perhaps inspired by Neruda’s brief stay on the island of Capri. It was a romantic and inspiring story.

In the 1940’s, Neruda served as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When the President of Chile, Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, outlawed Communism, he fled and escaped through a mountain pass to Argentina.

The 2016 film Neruda takes liberties with those facts and runs with it. It stars Gael Garcia Bernal, one of my favorite actors, as a detective hunting down Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) in a sort of cat and mouse game. Neruda leaves morsels of crumbs to taunt Inspector Oscar Peluchonneau (Gabriel Garcia Bernal), in the form of novellas that he autographs. It was more of a fantasy film, very loosely based on actual events in Pablo Neruda’s life, but with the spirit of how he affected people being shown again and again. His admirers wanted him to recite his poems, to write one especially for them, to dance and drink with them. His legend was all encompassing.

We hear the Inspector’s thoughts through voice over, his assigned job by the President to trail and arrest Neruda becoming a personal obsession with finding him regardless of any cost or danger to himself. In this way, the Inspector is the central character, whereas in real life, it would be Neruda whose thoughts and impressions of the chase are most important.

The director Pablo Larrain, also directed the recent film Jackie, a biopic about Jacqueline Kennedy. I have not seen Jackie as yet, and am curious as to how it will impress me, or if it will. I found the film Neruda to be somewhat disappointing. I felt like it couldn’t make up its mind whether to present itself as fact or fiction, and the voice over of the Inspector’s thoughts to ultimately be boring. I think if you have an interest in South American history, and particularly of this time period when Communism was a dirty word in countries striving to be Democratic, you would find it interesting.

If you’re more interested in the poetry of Neruda, I recommend watching instead Il Postino. The cinematography and music were outstanding, the story touching, and it will elicit the romantic in you.

Neruda is rated R for sexuality/nudity, and some language. It is currently playing at the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque through Tuesday, February 7^th. It will be shown again at the same theater from February 20^th through the 23^rd.

The Salesman (Forushande)

The Salesman (Forushande) is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards. The film is from Iran, and is in Persian with English subtitles. It won two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor for Shahab Hosseini, and Best Screenplay for Asghar Farhadi. It was both written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. The Salesman is rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements and a brief bloody image.

This is an engrossing movie, setting the scene for tension right from the opening sequences when residents in an apartment building in Tehran have to evacuate, as the building has been damaged and is unstable.

The two main characters, Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti), are a young married couple. After they evacuate their apartment, they set up a home in another building, renting their flat from an acquaintance. The woman who previously lived there has not removed her belongings yet, and this sets up a chain of events that shake the couple to their core.

I appreciated getting a glimpse into the life of people living in Iran. I have had friends from Iran, but their descriptions of the country did little to prepare me for the environment depicted here. It sometimes left me wondering about the culture in Iran, why certain things remain unsaid in the film, and about the societal norms that were displayed during the progression of the story. It leaves me with a curiosity about this culture that is different, yet similar to my own in terms of human relationships.

Despite struggling economically, the couple has interests in the theatre, and Emad has a job as a teacher. His male students are reading “classic” books that are standard reading assignments in English classes in American high schools.

Emad and Rana are also actors, and are in the midst of performing American playwright Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesman. This playacting and staging of the depressing story of Willie Loman very effectively alternates with their life turned upside down when an intruder enters their home. (Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the Tony award for Best Play for Death of a Salesman.) It is no accident the screenwriter chose this play to be the play they are staging. Asghar Farhadi wrote a very finely crafted screenplay. Emad plays Willie Loman and Rana his wife Linda in the production of the play.

The tension builds and stays at a high as Emad seeks to find Rana’s assailant. The metaphors and parallels between the play and the couple’s lives being played out before us work so well together. It’s really a brilliant piece questioning what it takes to forgive, the motivations behind revenge, and the damage that happens to both love and trust when the unthinkable happens.

I saw it at my local movie theater, the Guild Cinema. It is playing there through Tuesday, February 7th, and will return for repeat screenings on February 20th through the 23rd. I highly recommend The Salesman.

Divines

Divines, a French film, was nominated for Best Motion Picture-Foreign Language at this year’s Golden Globes (lost to Elle). Houda Benyamina, who won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for this work, directs it. The Camera d’Or award is for the best first film from the official selection. It is a prestigious award and I am not surprised Divines took a prize. The story engrossed me from beginning to end. The way the movie was filmed adds even more to this story of poverty, dreams, and friendship.

It takes place in a very poor slum in Paris somewhere, a place I never saw when I visited the grand city. Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) and her best friend Maimouna (Deborah Lukumuena) are shoplifters and schemers, despite the guidance of Maimouna’s father who is a priest.

Dounia becomes impatient with having so little money, and the family often does not have enough to eat, so she seeks out the tutelage of a drug dealer, Rebecca (Jisca Kalvanda). The money starts rolling in.

Dounia becomes attracted to a dancer, Djigui (Kevin Mischel), whom she sees auditioning and rehearsing on stage at a theater. He would have been a good influence on her had they gotten together sooner I think.

She makes some bad choices, very bad choices, so don’t expect a happy ending. Her mother is a basket case, and she has no father. School bores her and she doesn’t see anything positive coming out of her attendance.

The film is subtitled and easy to follow, and I found it fascinating. The world that the best friends live in is multi-cultural, multi-racial, diverse in terms of religion, and supremely poor. It was definitely a part of France I was unaware of. They get by as best they can. There are no other shining examples of success to lean on. The makeup of these people is the same as in any impoverished country; no hope, no role models, little in the way of assistance for anything. I found particularly distressing the lack of water in their little tin shacks they called home.

The contrast between Djigui and Dounia is striking. He has hope for his future, whereas she does not. His dancing is raw and passionate, kind of like Dounia herself. Djigui is able to go after his dreams in a culturally acceptable way as a dancer; Dounia does not.

Divines is filmed engagingly, the interactions between the characters are realistic, and the acting is very good. It will definitely make you think about the world many people live in, and consider the extreme poverty some people are born into and their almost futile attempts to make it out. Houda Benyamina made me care about these girls, so that when tragedy strikes, it is heartbreak.

Even though I am calling Divines a tragedy, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it. I admired the storytelling that illuminated a little piece of life on earth I didn’t know existed. You can watch it on streaming Netflix.

La La Land

La La Land is a love letter. A love letter to Hollywood, to romance, to following your dreams. It’s an old fashioned musical, and a tribute to jazz.

This amazing film took home all seven Golden Globe awards it was nominated for. Now nominated for 14 awards at the Academy Awards, everyone is asking: Will this be the year that a musical wins Best Picture? There have only been 10 musicals that won Best Picture. If La La Land wins, it will join such illustrious movie musicals as An American in Paris, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music. The last musical to win for Best Picture was Chicago.

La La Land is rated PG-13 for some language, and has absolutely nothing objectionable in it. You can take all your children, especially the ones who are interested in theater arts and music. The opening scene is a bit surreal. People jump out of their cars in a traffic jam on the Interstate, dancing and singing joyfully under the smog free horizon of the beautiful mountains towering over the city of angels.

Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are two dreamers. He is a musician enamored by classic jazz, she an aspiring actress. They both have their dreams, Sebastian to open his own club, and Mia to be an actress in the movies.

They fall in love, and what transpires between them is truly magical. Particularly beautiful is their dancing at the Griffith Observatory, the graphics perfectly complimenting their falling in love, dancing amongst the stars in the galaxy. It’s indescribable, magical and totally fits the story line.

I really loved the ode to jazz that this story is for Sebastian. Keith (John Legend) whisks Sebastian away to life on the road, and I knew Sebastian had a higher purpose for this detour all along. Mia keeps on too, and turns out to have a creative streak in her, something that goes above and beyond the actress who embodies other’s words. She’s a woman with her own words and ideas.

I noticed the reactions from the audience as we watched the film together in the darkened theater. At the rather surprising ending, we were silent, touched by what the screenwriter let us see, touched by the honesty of the choices the two lovers had made, and the reality of what happens when two people have the intensity to make their dreams come true.

The screenplay was written and directed by Damien Chazelle. So glad he went after his personal dreams. I’d watch this again and again. I admit I am a huge fan of jazz, and when Sebastian talks about how no one appreciates it any more, my heart kind of jerks open. La La Land is a love letter to jazz, to dreams, romance and most importantly, to Hollywood, where dreams come true.

Good luck at the Academy Awards beautiful La La Land. I hope you’ll go down in history as number 11 of the Best Picture musicals.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

“There are no victimless billionaires.”

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Greg Palast is an investigative journalist who has worked for the BBC and The Guardian. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, is a documentary feature that chronicles his search for the truth about voter suppression in America.

The film begins at a frenetic pace, lots of flashy graphics and cartoons, but if you stick it out, it calms down. They likely put the film together in this way to appeal to the Facebook/Twitter/Instagram addicted people in society, short attention spans and a need for stimulation. Keith Tucker was in charge of animation. He also worked on the Roger Rabbit comic.

Greg Palast looks every bit the newspaperman going after a story, with his fedora and trench coat, crashing elegant parties for the rich, asking the tough questions until overweight white bouncers escort him out. I appreciate a journalist who is willing to put himself on the line for searching out the truth, and then presenting it to the public in a documentary such as this one. Today’s news outlets could use an army of such muckrakers.

I went to see it in the theater with my husband and two friends. It made us sad, and it made one of my friends cry. Palast reveals details about the program called Crosscheck, which was initiated by moneyed white men and carried out by elected white officials. It’s to benefit Republicans who fear they can’t get elected any other way. More depressing than anything I’ve seen lately, it shows how minorities in America were put on lists claiming they voted twice, with the result being their single vote was not even counted.

This is voter fraud in the worst way, and a large part of how Trump got elected. Rich white men who want unlimited wealth see to it that Democrats, those politicians who would actually work to secure the rights of underprivileged poor people, especially African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans, are not voted in. If all the minority votes count, no Republican would ever get in office!

If someone showed me these lists, and said these people voted in two different states, I’d say your sampling techniques and data collection are flawed. People with even a high school education should be able to figure this one out. I’ll leave the details of the scam for you to see for yourself in the movie.

This was a chilling tale and left us feeling helpless and hopeless. But knowledge is power. Even if we don’t know how to combat voter suppression at this time, just knowing more about it is a start. It may also make you angry, but I urge you to find it on Amazon or Vimeo, and educate yourself. Have a viewing party with your friends and talk afterwards about what you can do to make a difference. Ask your representatives to have the Department of Justice open an investigation on the Crosscheck system for starters, and don’t let up.