April Movie Reviews

*****   Spectacular

****     Good

***       OK

**         Blah

*           Ghastly

Black Sea  I kept seeing previews for this movie and I have to admit, death by submarine seems like the worst way to die.  I figured just the feeling of claustrophobia would give me nightmares, but I ran out of movies while waiting for my library holds to come in and there the DVD was on the shelf waiting for me. Jude Law plays a submarine captain who works for a fancy, corporate salvage company. They fire him after 15 years. He's bitter. He is hired by some anonymous rich guy to rescue Nazi gold off a WWII sunken submarine. His crew is half English and half Russian which makes for very bad cultural relations. Then there is the greed and the stupidity. What were those crew members thinking hundreds of feet underwater? Jude Law was great. I don't think he's Irish but that was one awesome Irish accent. A little too tense and testosterone-ish for me, but it was good. ***

The Cake Eaters was about small-town strange people. It was painfully slow and lacking in interest. I lasted about 20 minutes before the pain was too intolerable. *

Front of the Class is a story about a boy with Tourette Syndrome and how he learns to live with it later becoming an award winning teacher. It's got to be a horrible way to grow up with kids bullying him constantly, or laughing at his outbursts, being told to leave movie theaters or performances because he's too disruptive. I do find the boy's constant positive attitude difficult to believe in light of all the negativity he faced daily. I think it was some kind of Hallmark after school film where even in bad situations everyone keeps smiling. James Wolk (who is absolutely adorable!) played the adult Brad Cohen on who's story the film is based. It was good. Perhaps a little unrealistic when he leaves a classroom of second graders unattended or stays alone with a student during recess. I think even a first year teacher would know better. At the same time, I remember the joy of getting my first classroom and walking into it for the first time. They captured that wonderfully. ****

The Ghost Writer features Ewan McGregor as a ghost writer hired to finish the memoirs of a British Prime Minister. Lots of conspiracy, political confusion and a plot that made me constantly question, "What the hell is going on?" I didn't have a clue and in the end I wasn't sure I cared. I do like Ewan McGregor. **

I Smile Back is a film about mental illness and addiction. A housewife (Sarah Silverman) is a mess. Cocaine, alcohol, extramarital affairs and in one scene she masturbates with her daughter's teddy bear in case there was any doubt of how low she can go or how degenerate she is. She goes to rehab and as soon as she's out, starts it all over again.  I have never seen Sarah Silverman in anything but loud-mouth comedy so I was pleasantly surprised at her performance, but the whole time I kept looking at this woman and her perfect husband (Will Gardner from The Good Wife), perfect kids, perfect house and wondering why she couldn't pull it together. And that's the whole theme of the movie: mental illness is a bitch. ***

Last Chance Harvey is about a jingle composer (Dustin Hoffman) who travels to England for his daughter's wedding. Nothing goes right for him. He's being pushed out of his job by younger employees, he feels out of place and unwelcomed at the rehearsal dinner, his daughter tells him she wants her step-father to walk her down the aisle, and then in hopes of getting home in time for an important meeting so he can save his career, he misses his flight and loses the job. There is something very discombobulating about him, like a dark cloud hanging over every aspect of his life. Throughout the story he continuously almost encounters an airport employee (Emma Thompson) who's life is very much the same. She seems very lonely and isolated going through the motions of life one mundane minute at a time. Again, very depressing and discombobulating as well, but the anticipation of them finally meeting is wonderful.  It was a charming love story that confirmed love is not just for the young and it will appear when it's least expected, sans the cliché predictability of a Hollywood plot. It left me thinking about missed opportunities and how to live life to the fullest. I like that feeling. ****

Labyrinth of Lies is a German movie with English subtitles about the attempt to bring the everyday Nazi war criminals to trial in the 1960s. After WWII, the Nuremburg Trials convicted a handful of Nazi generals and higher ranking officers, but what about the lower-ranking guards who worked at the concentration camps who were responsible for so many deaths? Those who carried out the orders and perpetuated the torture and violence without any thought or remorse? In the 1950s they became teachers, bakers, or anyone allowed to walk the streets living normal lives pretending nothing they did was wrong.  It's also a story about how after the war Germany tried to sweep the Holocaust experience under the rug in order to forget. Citizens ignored what went on or conveniently remained ignorant. But the issue and legal conflict is in the 1940s nearly everyone belonged to the "Party".  Some were passionate supporters and others were forced to join, but the government can't arrest a whole country. And are soldiers who obey orders during war time liable for their own crimes against humanity? If that's the case, there is a whole world of people walking the streets who should be on trial for murder but instead they are called heroes fighting for their patriotic cause. It was very thought provoking. When I've seen Holocaust movies and at the end the Jewish protagonist is still living amongst his Nazi tormentors, I wonder how could that have been? I found the movie personally interesting because we do have a former WWII Nazi living in my little town. I've heard he worked at a concentration camp and he still professes Nazi beliefs to his neighbors.  I've always thought it was weird he's allowed to just live his life after that. He spends most of his time now as a Jehovah's Witness religious nut walking from door to door which is how I met him. You'd think maybe he found God and has paid some kind of personal retribution, but I was told he had an affair with a young girl at his church so he is still morally questionable to the bone. The public prosecutor in this movie was after the notorious Dr. Mengele who performed all kinds of sadistic experiments on Jews. He fled Germany in 1945, lived rather comfortably in Buenos Aires, and freely came back to Germany to visit family constantly knowing no one would do anything. He was never brought to justice and died in 1979. In our "modern" society, how does this happen? Crimes against humanity should not go unpunished. The performances were outstanding, the costumes and sets were superb, and the story was fascinating.  The subtitles were obnoxious since I can never read fast enough to keep up with them so I'm pretty sure I get only half the dialogue most of the time. ***

Life is about photographer Dennis Stock's time with James Dean and the photo spread he did for Life magazine just before Dean's death. You know, that classic photo of Dean walking down NYC in the long black coat? I don't know if I liked the casting. The guy who plays Dean is very strange bordering on retarded. Was Dean that strange and quirky? I've heard he was, but to that extreme? Robert Pattison of Twilight fame plays the photographer. He's always moody bordering on brain dead. Together they created a very slow, moody, brain dead film. **

May I Be Frank is about the transformation of Frank Ferrante an Italian New Yorker and former drug addict who was diagnosed with Hepatitis C a few years back and has been on chemotherapy-type drugs that create joint pain, depression, and a number other chemically-induced side effects of misery. To counteract these symptoms he must take five more prescriptions which cause more misery. What a mess. He's overweight, suicidal, and hates himself, but hides most of his misery with his outstanding sense of humor. He walks into Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco and answers their question of the day, "What do you want to do before you die?" They adopt him, have him sign a program/coaching agreement, clean out his refrigerator, put him on a vegan, raw food diet with daily doses of wheat grass, pump out his intestines with regular colonics, and film the 42 day transformation. It's pretty amazing. Not only does he drop the weight, but he ends up going off all his prescription medications, reconnects with alienated family members, apologizes to those he's wronged, gives his expensive clothes to the homeless, and discovers energy he hasn't had for years. Very inspiring. ****

Me, and Earl, and the Dying Girl is about a high school boy who makes bizarre, yet hilarious re-made films of movie classics with his "co-worker" sidekick, Earl. His mother forces him to spend time with her friend's daughter,  a girl he barely knows from his high school, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Excellent writing that is often LOL. Superb performances. ****

Odd Thomas is a movie based on the novel of the same name by Dean Koontz about a clairvoyant who can see dead people and dreams of things to come.  He also sees these weird evil demonic things called "bodachs" that hang around to sniff the blood of a person destined to die soon. Those things are really creepy and the special effects are outstanding. In all the creepy, evil, bloody impending violence, there is this strange humor thorough out the movie that is ODD to say the least. Some of the dialogue is like a 1950s B-rated horror movie which is kind of fun. The movie was definitely entertaining and although I had my doubts at first, I actually really liked it. ****

Max is about a military dog who's owner is killed in combat. He has PTSD which renders him combat useless so they give him to the soldier's family. He's a mess, crazy and as evil as a big dog can be, but he still has super powers from all that good training. He's fond of the soldier's little brother. Now, I hate dog movies. They are right up there with religious football movies, tugging at your heart strings and manipulating your emotions to the point of nausea, but this one was surprisingly good. It helped it had a death theme. If I didn't know for a fact dogs are stinky, noisy, high-maintenance and expensive, this movie would make me want to get one. Especially one that would chew up bad guys on command or just growl on instinct. In addition, I do have a weakness for German Shepherds since my first dog was a German Shepherd. I confess, I liked the movie, dog and all. ****

Paradise: Hope is the third movie in a German trilogy. This one is about an overweight teenage girl going to a diet camp where she falls in love with the camp doctor. The camp doctor is weird. He's old enough to be her grandfather and spends his spare moments in his office smoking and drinking (and probably masturbating but they don't show that!). He's a bit creepy and pedophile-ish. At one point when they are on a hiking field trip, he follows her into the dark woods and another scene after she sneaks out, gets drunk and passes out, he picks her up drives her into the woods, lays her passed-out body under some trees and he LICKS her from head to toe. OH MY!!! I think that's what he was doing. So strange although the forest photography was beautiful. The story never really goes anywhere and the acting is bad. Lots of overweight children marching back and forth. I didn't turn it off although I was tempted several times. I really thought it would take a turn or something would progress to the point where I would think there was a point or even a plot. It had no point or maybe there was a secret artsy meaning that went right over my head. No, I'm not going to see the other movies in the trilogy. *

Prime is about a 37 year old woman (Uma Thurman) falling for a 23 year old boychild. Her therapist (Meryl Streep) is his Jewish mother who disapproves of her son's non-Jewish girlfriend not knowing how much older she is. When she figures out her patient's new love is her son during a counseling session, she doesn't want to lose her long-standing patient who she believes needs support and help so she doesn't say anything about the conflict of interest. Uma, who is happy for the first time in a long time, constantly confesses very private details about their sex life and Meryl has to figure out how to negotiate the discomfort of knowing what she knows. His immaturity was a bit irritating, but his utter devotion was sweet and enviable. Having had a similar relationship many, many years ago, it brought back a whole deluge of not-so-good memories. It was interesting on a personal level, but nothing special.  Nice New York City story with excellent city life scenes and sets. ***

The Railway Man is about an English veteran/engineer (Colin Firth) with a fetish for trains who was tortured during WWII in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. He's haunted by memories and unable to forget the cruelty forty years later. He meets and marries Nicole Kidman who wants to help and understand him. One of his POW comrades finds a newspaper article that features the representative of their torture. They will finally get their revenge. The Japanese soldier, a former wartime English interpreter, is giving tours of the prisoner-of-war camp. Our POW veteran travels back to the scene of the crime to kill him. It's about suffering, guilt, redemption, revenge, reconciliation and forgiveness. ****

Spotlight received the Oscar for Best Picture in 2016. It's about the Boston Globe's investigation and subsequent article on the child sexual molestation in the Catholic Church that was ignored and covered up by Church officials. Priests were being transferred from one church to the next enabling them to continue their abuse. So frightening and such a horrible abuse of power. Even after the article was published the bishop who ignored the problem for years was transferred to a foreign country and allowed to maintain his position. Sound more like a reward than justice. Excellent performances. I love Mark Ruffalo and come to find out he's a supporter of Bernie Sanders. He's my idol...****

That's What I Am is a coming-of-age movie set in the 1960s about bullying and intolerance. I loved that it kept me wondering how it was going to play out. The anticipation was delicious. There was only one aspect of the ending I didn't like and I felt it defeated the theme's purpose, but it's a minor point. The narration is hilarious and extremely well-written. Many LOL moments. ****

Tomorrowland is a Disney movie about the future. The first part featuring the 1964 World's Fair in New York was really fascinating and I had high hopes for the rest of it, but then it got a little too sci-fi with too much conspiracy theory that was way over my head. Lots of violence for a kid's movie, even if they were just killing robots and vaporizing humans. I came really close to turning it off near the end as I thought going to bed and sleeping might be more entertaining. The message was good: we are killing the planet and no one really gives a shit. It stars George Clooney who has aged quickly in the last year. That was a little discombobulating and unacceptable. I think marriage does that to a man.... A lot of people are seeing this DVD as it had over 200 holds on it in my library. Blah. **

Upside Down is a fantasy about two worlds somewhere in the galaxy that exist next to each other with opposite gravities. The bottom world is dark, poverty-stricken, and cold because the other world that exists above steals their resources through a corporation called Trans World . Trans World has a huge tower that connects the two worlds but it's against the law for people from the worlds to intermingle. Two kids meet at the peak of mountains in their respective worlds, learn how to balance and work with the opposing gravities to be together. They are soon discovered and separated when the police shoot him and she falls to her world with blood gushing from her head. Ten years later (after prison?) the boy is an inventor and he finds out she is alive and working at Trans World. He gets a job in "the tower" so he can see her, but finds out the accident caused her to lose all memory.  Yeah, I know that sounds confusing, but actually it wasn't. The plot is very creative and the sets, especially for the dark world, are awesome although depressing. It's profoundly memorable - I thought about it for days. I think they could have come up with a better title for the movie. It stars Kirsten Dunst. *****