“Birdman: Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance,” April 15, 2015 (2014), DVD. We both liked and appreciated this weird, incredibly choreographed Oscar-winning auteur piece from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu that looks at a Hollywood sci-fi action star (Michael Keaton, who of course played Batman) trying to revive his career at the next level by…
Love Is Strange
“Love Is Strange,” March 11, 2015 (2014), DVD. Wonderful premise that is under-realized through the script and the production. Ben (John Lithgow) a painter living on SSI and George (Alfred Molina) a music teacher at a Catholic high school, have been together for almost forty years when their worlds change. They marry and, consequently, George…
Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian
“Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian,” January 23, 2015 (2013), DVD. We were intrigued by and appreciated this understated, lo- keyed, very well acted based-on-a true-story film. Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro) was a Native American from the Blackfoot nation, and a WWII vet plagued by terrible dreams, horrible headaches, and occasional blindness….
Broadchurch
“Broadchurch,” January 2015 (2013), DVD. We really enjoyed this 8-episode Brit murder mystery featuring David Tennant (Dr Who) as DI Alec Hardy and Olivia Coleman as DDI Ellie Miller. The murder of an 11-yo boy in an idyllic Dorset town sets off a series of events exposing both the complex and fractured relationships in…
The Wind Rises
“The Wind Rises,” January 15, 2015 (2013), DVD, We watched this one dubbed into English and don’t regret it as the animation is superb and the vocal acting remarkable. Jiro Hirokoshi was Japan’s foremost fighter plane designer before and during WWII. He wants to design beautiful and elegant planes on the order of Italy’s early…
Kundo: Age of the Rampant
“Kundo: Age of the Rampant,” December 23/24, 2014 (2014), DVD. It the late 1860s and the Korea’s Joeson Dynasty has slipped into rule by corrupt governors and nobles who oppress the peasants. A group of bandits wages war against these oppressors and out of this you get Robin Hood Meets the Magnificent 7/7 Samurii as…
Korengal
“Korengal,” December 20/22, 2014, DVD. Sebastian Junger’s sequel documentary look at the troops he stayed with in Afghanistan’s Korengal valley. It focuses on the dynamic of men bonded and the experience of combat and war in their lives. As Junger notes in an attached TED talk, and as I think the film makes clear on…
Saving Mr Banks
“Saving Mr. Banks,” December 20 2014 (2013), DVD. Emma Thompson shines as PL Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins series, in this Disney production about the making of Disney’s “Mary Poppins” film. Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks as a jovial and crafty artist/father/boss/capitalist, had wanted the books since 1938 when his daughters introduced…
Six By Sondheim
“Six By Sondheim,” November 17, 2014 (2013), DVD This is very much Sondheim talking about Sondheim An HBO documentary, it examines the greatest living American musical composer/lyricist through his many interviews and shows while concentrating on six classic songs and shows It is a remarkably open look at his life, his painful youth saved…
Generation Iron
“Generation Iron,” November 17 2014 (2013), DVD. This documentary revisits the issues raised by “Pumping Iron” almost 40 years ago, following new competitors. Arnold and Lou make appearances of course and Mickey Rourke narrates as the reigning king, Phil Heath, goes head to head with Kai Greene and others. Each individual’s style, personalities, backgrounds,…
The Lunchbox
“The Lunchbox,” November 1-2, 2014 (2013), DVD. We both enjoyed this lovely Indian/indie film written, produced and directed by Ritesh Batra that reminds me quite a bit of “Lost in Translation” a real nineteenth-century feel to parts of it, especially those surrounding the written exchanges. It follows the evolving, May-December connection between Ila…
Vito
“Vito,” October 17, 2014, DVD. There is much to recommend this documentary story of Vito Russo, author of The Celluloid Closet. An early and standout gay activist, he succumbed to AIDS in 1991. He was a founder of Act UP!, he figured in the major opening of gay life in post-Stonewall 1970s NYC and San…
The Trip
“The Trip,” October 13, 2014, DVD. Steve Coogan goes on a junket reviewing restaurants in the Lake District. Instead of his girlfriend, Misha, who’s off in the US, he travels with Rob Bryden, an actor and radio personality, an old acquaintance if not a good friend Their quirky and often very funny interactions highlight this…
God Loves Uganda
“God Loves Uganda,” September 17, 2014 (2013), DVD. This documentary recounts the rise of anti-gay legislation in Uganda and the opportunistic and profoundly perverse role played by US evangelical missionaries in building this movement. Another painful and disturbing story of overt meddling and the money and power at stake in this battle here and…
Philomena
“Philomena,” September 17, 2014 (2013), DVD. Judy Dench (Oscar nomination for the role) is marvelous as the title character in this 2013 drama about an elderly Irish woman seeking to reconnect and discover the story of her biological son who she gave birth to in the 1950s at a Catholic abbey/laundry set up to house…
Violeta Went to Heaven
“Violeta Went to Heaven,” September 15, 2014 (2011), DVD, (Spanish with subtitles.) This 2011 biopic from Andres Wood looks at the life and work of Violeta Parra (1917-1967), famed Chilean singer/songwriter/poet/artist/embroiderer whose work was an inspiration to the New Song movement. I don’t usually like this type of film, but I found it engrossing. Francisca…
Tim’s Vermeer
“Tim’s Vermeer,” September 14, 2014 (2013), DVD. What makes a Vermeer a Vermeer? I hunted down as many as I could when I was in the Netherlands and in other European and American museums that claimed to possess one or more. I stood in front of them transfixed. They are special. Tim Jennison, an autodidact…
Grand Budapest Hotel
“Grand Budapest Hotel,” August 13, 2014 DVD. We both really enjoyed this Wes Anderson confection about M Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) concierge of the hotel and Zero Mustafa (Tony Revolori/F Murray Abraham) a refugee who becomes the new lobby boy and his devoted friend and companion. Very funny story of a struggle over a…
Nebraska
“Nebraska,” May 15, 2014 (2013), DVD. We both really enjoyed this quirky, understated, black-and-white comic/tragi look at an elderly Montana working man, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) who comes to believe that he’s won a million dollars in a sweepstakes and needs to go to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect it He’s a tough old bird, an…
Dallas Buyers Club
“Dallas Buyers Club,” May 8, 2014, DVD. Ron Woodruff. (Matthew McConaughey-Oscar for Best Actor) a Texas wild man, electrician, bull-rider, carouser learns he’s contracted HIV (an anachronism in 1985, that wasn’t known) and is given 30 days to live. Seeking AZT, he journey’s to Mexico and meets a doctor who convinces him to turn to…
Stranger Than Fiction
“Stranger Than Fiction,” May 5, (2 a.m.) 2014 (2006), DVD. Fed up with “Mulan” (see below), I riffled through some DVD’s my sister gave me long ago and found this old one starring Will Farrell as Harold Crick, a boring and bored IRS auditor whose predictable life becomes the subject of a novelist’s…
The Broken Circle Breakdown
“The Broken Circle Breakdown,” April 20, 2014 (2012), DVD, in Flemish with subtitles. Very creative, non-linear story from director Felix von Groeningen. Didier (Johan Heidenbergh) is a Belgian artist and former punk who plays banjo in, of all things, a bluegrass band. He meets Elise (Verlee Baetens) a tattoo artist with her own shop….
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
April 19, 2014 (2013), DVD. This would have been much better in the theater I’ve been waiting for this one as I liked the first of this new Peter Jackson trilogy Sad to say, I was disappointed More giant spiders a la Sheila in LOTR, and an otherwise slow to develop, overly drawn out plotline…
The Book of Mormon
“The Book of Mormon,” April 12, 2014, live in theater. We both really enjoyed this crude, rude, not-for-the-kids smash hit musical from the creators of South Park. It lovingly skewers the theology of the Latter Day Saints while eventually reminding us that all religion is just about metaphor. Although lots of folks don’t seem to…
Inside Llewyn Davis
“Inside Llewyn Davis,” March 30, 2014 (2013), DVD. The latest from the Coen Brothers, this dark and frustrating look at the folk scene in 1961/62, and yes, it’s that precisely dated, crafts an opportunistic, unpleasant, frequently narcissistic, often cruel if true-to-the-music semi-Dave Van Ronk alter-ego (Llewyn Davis, acted by Oscar Issac—who plays his own…