Category Archives: Loved it

Midnight Special – Director, Jeff Nichols

Adventure, Great Trash, Loved it, Uncategorized

I went to see this film largely on the recommendation of Eli Glasner who gave it a rare 5-star rating. While I sometimes agree with Glasner this rating is a mistake. The movie is good and entertaining but not great and not 5 stars. I have always been of the opinion that movies are for entertainment primarily and occasionally they move above that but lists of the greatest films ever made tend to suggest an appeal to some universal principles of greatness that simply do not exist. So all that said Midnight Special is a sci-fi movie that may well fit into a class with some of the more loved films in the genre like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Ex Machina or Blade Runner. The story is about a boy who appears to have special powers over which he does not have complete control. Everyone wants him from the NSA to the FBI to a crazy religious cult but none of them fully understand him. He is kidnapped from the religious cult and taken away by his father and mother who are chased down by the Feds but not before they are able to deliver their son to his ultimate destiny. The film is never entirely clear about how anyone knows about him, how he could possibly be the progeny of the two mortals or what really is going on. There are too many hiccups like this to make the film worth the 5-star rating in my opinion but I agree that it is a great ride with great acting and its not so bad that we are left with a few questions. Thanks Eli for making me go see this one and I will give it a 4-star rating so we are mostly in agreement.

Chi-Raq – Director, Spike Lee

Comedy, Drama, Loved it, Uncategorized

I have to admit I liked this movie despite being very suspicious based on reviews. Lee has based his anti-violence, anti-gun, anti-war movie on Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata. The Greek play is about an Athenian woman who acts to end the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. She allies with the women of Sparta to swear a vow and deny their men sex until the war is ended. The original play works well in the context of gang wars in Chicago. Samuel L. Jackson plays the chorus/narrator and is perfect in the part. The rest of the cast is great and the story really works. Have to admit I found the dialogue hard to follow at times but the story is great fun and while essentially a comedy, Lee makes his political points. Guns are killing young black men, children and other innocents. Lee makes it clear that it’s the guns that do the killing. He condemns the violent conflict and points to its origins in unemployment, poor education, and poverty. The latter points are made in a somewhat ham handed way but on the other hand the story is portrayed in a classical theatric format rather than the realism we might otherwise expect. Its stage play on film and works really well. Good fun and with a message that we all need to hear.

Everything is Copy – Director, Jacob Bernstein

Documentary, Loved it, Uncategorized

Everything is Copy is a tribute documentary to Nora Ephron, an essayist, humourist, screenwriter, and all round really interesting woman who died in 2012 of leukemia. It was made by her son Jacob Bernstein and covers really all aspects of her life from childhood through several marriages including Carl Bernstein of All the President’s Men fame. She was an iconoclastic observer of human foibles and of being a woman in a male dominated society. She took on all aspects of her life from divorce to aging to illness with an acerbic wit that attracted many to her despite the fear of being cut to the quick by her wit and observations. The film uses interviews with Ephron herself from the past as well as with the many creative film and publishing greats who knew and loved her including Carl Bernstein, Steven Spielberg, Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep and Carl Reiner among many others.

If you do not know her you need to know that she was the brains and writer behind films like Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Silkwood, and Julie and Julia. All hugely successful and well reviewed. If you want to know her thoughts however read her essays and humour which are available in several books and the archives of the New York Times and Esquire. The film is one of the many HBO documentaries and can be seen on HBO on-demand channels.

Filmish – Book Review, Author, Edward Ross

Book Review, Loved it, Uncategorized

Filmish presents a graphic non fiction look at the history and impact of film over the last 100 years. Lots of film fans are reluctant to read books about film and the history of film by critics and academics which can turn film viewing into a boring academic exercise that is essentially just opinion anyway. Do you really believe Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made? Do you care? When you know that its really a choice between Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia (or secretly – Star Wars: Episode IV)?

I enjoyed the book because it of the art work and the opinions. Ross has divided into chapters describing how film influences or uses the eye, time, voice and language and ideology and technology. It is not academic but raises many questions and challenges the reader to think about their own experience of watching a movie. For those who are inspired to look more deeply into the literature around film, the author quotes many of the more notable critics and writers and provides a superb bibliography. Reading the book will definitely change how you watch movies without wrecking the experience for you. Highly recommended.

Theeb – Director, Naji Abu Nowar

Adventure, Drama, Loved it, Oscar 2016, Uncategorized

Unlike Room ( see below), which also focuses on a young boy at the centre of the story, this film is far more powerful and interesting. It is set in 1916 in Hijaz province (Western Saudi Arabia today) of the Ottoman empire. It is during the First World War at the time of Lawrence of Arabia and tells the story of a young boy named Theeb or Wolf in Arabic and his older brother. They are asked to guide a English soldier to a well on the way to Mecca. They are moving through a war torn area and are victims of a conflict they have nothing to do with. The cinematography in this film is beautiful and reminiscent of David Lean’s masterpiece. The boy is a great actor and not nauseatingly cute as in Room but very real. Unlike Room I was entranced for the full hour and a half. This movie has a high rating from reviewers but like many foreign language films has had very little exposure. The knock on this movie is that it is a simple coming of age adventure film with a predictable outcome. I am not sure this is entirely fair. The world in which it is set and the time is a violent one and this movie avoids any gruesome violence or unjustified confrontations or death.It’s a good adventure story and I would highly recommend it to you. it will be at review cinemas and the Lightbox so get out and see it.

Creed – Director, Ryan Coogler

Drama, Good, Loved it, Oscar 2016, Oscar Stuff, Uncategorized

Has it really been 40 years since the first Rocky movie? Creed is a homage to the Rocky series and is a remake in many ways of the original film only this time focussing on the rising career of Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son played by Michael B. Jordan. Coogler’s previous very well received film is called Fruitvale Station also starring Jordan. I have not seen the latter but will definitely hunt it down now. As for this film, I have to wonder how Jordan does not get a nomination or how Coogler (who is black) doesn’t get one either for directing. This is particularly bad when I look at the nominated films some of which simply do not measure up to this one. If it had been nominated it would have also gone some way toward addressing the whiteness of the Academy’s process.

It is clear why Stallone gets a nomination in the acting category. Although he is not known for great performances outside of the Rocky series he is actually really good in this film. I hope I am not being overly generous here and channeling my memories from 40 years ago but hey…I had a great time watching this movie and it took me back. So I think this counts as a really good movie and a tribute to the entire Rocky series. It has, and this is a warning, great boxing scenes and I know there are those who find this unpleasant and see it as barbaric. The latter may be true but that doesn’t take from the quality of this movie. Go see it if you can.

Son of Saul – Director, László Nemes

Drama, Loved it, Oscar 2016, Oscar Stuff, Uncategorized

This is a very difficult film to watch. The Nazi’s selected skilled and fit Jews to help in the concentration camps as work commandos. They were not executed unless they fell ill or were no longer needed. They collected the clothing and possessions of the inmates who were led to the ovens and gas chambers. This film follows one of these commandos who finds his son among the dead and seeks to find a rabbi and give his son a proper burial. It is filmed from his perspective as the camera follows him around focussed on his face or what he is watching. This techniques makes it very powerful and very upsetting as the reality of the camps is revealed. The ending is inevitable if not entirely predictable. It frustrates me somewhat that these excellent films are not recognized more fully by the Academy. An award for the Best Foreign Language Film is something out of a past in which the lords of Hollywood condescended to recognize films from those countries that in their opinion sadly lacked a real film industry. This kind of American arrogance needs to be addressed with a major redo of the awards and the industry. Worth an editorial on the blog shortly. In the meantime here is a very good movie that deserves the recognition it is getting.

What Happened, Miss Simone? – Director, Liz Garbus

Documentary, Loved it, Oscar 2016, Uncategorized

Okay I will confess I really like Liz Garbus. She has not made a bad documentary in her life that I am aware of including Love, Marilyn, The World Against Bobby Fischer and the Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. Go check them out if you have not seen them. This is another winner. The film uses interviews with her former husband and manager, her daughter and niece to great effect but the news footage of her and Stokley Carmichael and others is even more powerful. Nina Simone was an amazing pianist and jazz/blues singer who suffered from manic depression and who took a potentially super star career to the depths of despair as she fought against racism in the US in 60’s and 70’s. Her life was tragic but through it all her powerful voice, song writing ability and passion for her music and her community kept her alive and fighting. I cannot recommend this film more. It is nominated for Best Documentary and is up against a biographical documentary about Amy Winehouse which took the BAFTA Award this year. I don’t see it. However good “Amy” is she did not live long enough nor was she committed enough to warrant beating out this movie. In this year of ever so white Oscars they could take a mini-step in the right direction to recognize this champion of human rights and freedom.

Hail, Caesar – Director, The Coen Brothers

Comedy, Great Trash, Loved it, Uncategorized

I liked this movie although I will admit it is not the best Coen brother film ever. It is much quieter and more subtle than I had anticipated. Reviews are mostly very positive and congratulate the Coen’s on a tribute and laugh at 1950’s Hollywood but the negative ones are very negative. I think it might be useful to see the film in conjunction with Trumbo and with Women He’s Undressed which also look at the same period. Hail, Caesar does not miss the communist element in Hollywood but does make light of it. The attack on the left wing elements of the creative people in Hollywood of the time was devastating and not funny but I am not sure the Coen’s deserve the antagonism they get for having fun with the whole thing. Certainly it is a comic take but it is so clearly comic and so tongue in cheek that I really enjoyed it notwithstanding the real story. There are some really great scenes mocking the mega dance scenes, the heroic over the top epics, and the mega stars who led the Hollywood of the time. There a number of great cameos and some wonderfully comic scenes but for the most part it is done without going over the top. I enjoyed it but as I note there are much better Coen Bros. films. Their best films are really great so their lesser efforts clearly disappointed some critics but to be fair, not being as great as their best is still pretty darn good.

Shaun the Sheep Movie – Directors, Mark Burton, Richard Starzak

Animation, Comedy, Loved it, Uncategorized

This movie has received rave reviews and very much deserves its nomination as Best Animated Feature although I suspect it will not win. It is aimed very much at a very young audience and since the Academy is not made up of kids it will be smiled at but not garner many votes. The animation is stop action which I also suspect is not everyone’s favourite. I liked it and the animation is great but again it raises several questions for me. Should there not be some recognition of the range, techniques and styles of animation and shouldn’t these be recognized with their own separate awards? Again we have a movie with no dialogue which again creates a style and approach that is not common in live action. Finally this is a kids movie. Is there any problem with having a category for children’s films? Live action or animated. It really doesn’t matter. Just so long as the very talented people who devote themselves to this kind of film get some recognition. Just saying.