***

Where Do We Go Now? sp—It could have been New York City and the gang war between the Jets and the Sharks as seen in Westside Story. Or perhaps it could be the Bloods and the Crypts  who in reality  have an uneasy truce in Los Angeles which usually prevents them from killing each other. However this movie takes us to small village in Lebanon (although the name of the country is never mentioned to suggest a certain universality to the theme). In this case there are two factions Muslims and Christians with their respective houses of worship being literally facing each other. They live side by side in this small village but all too often friction occurs and the men are at each other and young men die. It is not this way with the women of this village who are friends and share their mourning and grief as they periodically bury their men. Second time Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki who wrote, directed and starred in this movie was inspired to create this movie shortly after she had her first child and was in anguish over a political rift in her country during which men were fighting in the street. She was moved to consider how horrible it must be to raise your son in this environment. She wrote a screenplay of what might happen if the women of this village were to get together and conspire to stop this senseless killing of the boys and men. The result is a poignant and comedic fable, which reminds us what women can do when they work together to try to protect their families. Ms. Labaki is not only inspired but is very talented. She created this movie using mostly non-actors, who often worked from the concept of a scene rather than following a tight script. Nevertheless there were some particularly authentic dramatic moments, which were done quite well. It did take a little while for us to get completely oriented to the storyline and the 100 minutes running time could have been edited more tightly. The theme partially echoes an  Albanian film The Forgiveness of Blood where ancient traditions of mediation are used to try to prevent the feuds but in the current film Ms Labaki‘s  instincts clearly focuses on the power of women. (2012)  

***

Last Call at the Oasis- sp  – People kill for it and we all are dependent on it. This  documentary is all about it and it is  “water”. It may not be a total surprise to you but the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century. This film puts a human face on the struggle around the impact of global warming in areas such as the Central Valley in California which is drying up. You can look into the eyes of people from various communities in Texas, the Midwest and elsewhere. You can see how industrial chemicals are doing their damage to people through our water supply. You see an illustration in one locality where you could actually get a flash flame by putting a match to water coming from the faucet. You meet the real Erin Brockovitch (made famous by her film portrayal by Julia Roberts) who is still fighting for people suffering the effects of contaminated water. You also meet an everyday Midwestern housewife who achieved well deserved recognition when she went on a campaign to measure and demonstrate the impurity of the water in her community. The film doesn’t offer simple solutions. It makes the case for conservation of water and the urgent need to rethink agricultural techniques and urban water use. One of the many things that can be done is the recycling of our waste water which technology allows us to do but too many people are reluctant to consider. The film is directed and produced by Jessica Yu with major support from Participation Media which has supported many social action films such as Waiting for Superman, Inconvenient Truth, Darfur Now, The Help and many others. You will come away from this movie much better informed and most likely inspired to do something about one of the major global problems areas of your lifetime. However, you may, in fact feel frustrated and overwhelmed. At the conclusion of the film in very small print for a brief moment there are some  websites which are listed which should have been  shown in bold type across the entire screen. One of these sites is Takepart.com/lastcall. On it you will learn 10 easy ways you can conserve water as well as interesting facts such as that in poor parts of the world people live on 2.5 gallons of water /day, a 60 watt light bulb requires 5 gallons of water for every hour it is left on, toilets can use as much as 7 gallons/flush, the average household uses 350 gallons of water/day. There is also a story of one accident which  spilled  3 million gallons of manure into the Black River in NY causing an unimaginable amount of water pollution. You can all learn how to sign the Water Bill of Rights or get the National Geographic water calculator to test your true water footprint. This is the potential of this film to inform you and move you to action.

****

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen- rm   Simon Beaufoy, who won an Academy Award for best adapted screen play for Slumdog Millionaire, this time adapts a screen play of a fanciful novel by Paul Torday. Director Lass Hallstrom crafts this almost fairy tale story with many levels and it comes across with an authentic ring. Of course it doesn’t hurt that you have some outstanding actors who do a great job. Dr. Albert Jones (Ewan McGregor) is a British government fishing expert who is approached by Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt), a financial consultant who is acting on behalf of Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked, an excellent Egyptian actor) who is willing to spend at least 50 million dollars to redo the desert country of Yemen to introduce his favorite sport  salmon fishing there. It is suggested at one point that the fishing expert might have “a touch Asbergers” since he can’t seem to help but tell the truth and he has little sense of humor. He is very likeable and there is chemistry between him and Harriet who is initially all business but vulnerable when the short term love of her life seems out of the picture. The British government officials who spur on this outlandish project, add humor to the story but everything always seems possible. We cared about all the characters and somehow never believed that the Shiekh was just a self-indulgent playboy. In the end we are reminded of what it means to have vision, to believe in your ideas as well as the joy in discovering romance in a special relationship. That makes this movie, in our opinion, a successful romantic comedy. (2012)

****

Mamitas- sp  This is a coming of age movie that takes place in East Los Angeles. Jordin Juarez (EJ Bonilla) is a bright defiant high school student living with his dad and brother and close to granddad (Pedro Armendariz, Jr.). His mother died at his birth and this “know it all guy” on the outside, with a lot of baggage on the inside, wasn’t sure where he was going but it wasn’t going to be college. The tagline of the movie is “You never know who will change your life forever and in this case it is Felipa (Veronica Diaz), visiting cousin of one of the local high school “chics.”  Felipa , big glasses and hidden good looks is hoping for a college scholarship but she too has her family secret. There is an interesting storyline but it isn’t as important as appreciating the slowly developing chemistry between these characters as well as the authentic East LA Latino setting. The movie was written and directed by first time feature filmmaker Nicholas Ozchki who met one of producers while they were both students at Chapman Film School. They subsequently have formed Right Brain Films, a group we are going to hear more about in the future.  EJ Bonilla first came to our attention in another recent film where he magnificently played a completely different character, which was, that of a young man who danced with his girl friend who was in a wheel chair in Musical Chairs. His mannerisms, charm and angst in the current role in Mamitas is also a tour de force as is the entire movie. (2012)

***

50/50- nf  A 27 year old single guy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)  gets a diagnosis of cancer with a 50/50 chance of survival. His girl friend (Bryce Dallas Howard) gets him a boney dog but can’t handle the situation and they break up. His mother (Angelica Huston) as usual tries to smother him. His best buddy (Seth Rogen) sticks by him and decides that this will be a great pick up line to get girls. Rogen’s comedic style carries the movie and allows a painful subject to be appreciated in a more palatable manner. Admittedly as a psychiatrist and a social worker who have trained medical students and physicians how to talk to patients, it was disappointing to see the cancer specialist as being quite insensitive. It also was a little disheartening to see the student therapist (Anna Kendrick) who was supposed to help him deal with the situation, act out a romantic crush that she developed for him. But it was done in good taste and, after all, it is only a movie. On the other hand the back-story for the film is quite authentic. As shown in the bonus feature of the DVD, the script writer (Will Reiser) actually lived this story and his best friend who stood by him through this ordeal was Seth Rogen. (2011)

****

Darling Companion- sp  This is a wonderful “ feel good “ movie that everyone can enjoy. It will be especially meaningful to anyone who has been part of a family when the last child is married off and the parents deal with their  adult relationship  with each other and other members of their families. It was directed  and produced by Lawrence Kasden (Big Chill, Grand Canyon and many more big time hits) who also wrote the script along with his wife Meg Kasden . They  put together an honest story that showed love, romance and  every day comedy in a way that most people should be able to relate to and immensely enjoy. They assembled a cast of actors who were able to embody the characters they created in a skillful and very authentic manner. Beth (Diane Keaton) and Joseph (Kevin Kline) are the newly “empty nested” parents  as their daughter Grace (Kate Moss of “Mad Men” fame) ,the youngest of their children, finally finds Mr. Right and gets married. Joseph  is a spine surgeon whom Beth acknowledges may have always been a little full of himself but is shown to ultimately be a good guy. Penny is Joseph’s divorced  sister (Diane Wiest) who has found her new love Russell  (Richard Jenkins) who is a bumbling guy who wants to marry Penny and open an English pub in Iowa. Bryan (Mark Duplass) is Penny’s son who is also a spine doctor and  has a touching flirtation with a gypsy like housekeeper (Ayelet Zurer) of the family’s vacation house in the beautiful Colorado mountains (which was filmed in the beautiful Utah mountains) . Sam Sheppard is Sheriff Morris who adds further warmth to the already tender story. What we haven’t told you yet is that the story is tied together by a loveable  dog – that almost magically appears and then disappears ! The movie is the story about the search for the dog which occurs while the characters are finding themselves and their own bearings. The story is just right at 103 minutes . The acting is perfect-Diane Keaton is at her mature best, the country type music hits the spot and the film features a a dog! How can it go wrong? (2012)

***

The Deep Blue Sea- rm-  This movie is set in about the 1950s in post World War II London. It focuses on the troubled personality of Hester Collyer   (magnificently nuanced performance by Rachel Weisz) who is unhappily married to a much older but caring British judge, Sir William Collyer (Simon Russel). After a chance meeting with Freddie Page, dashing former RAF pilot, (Tom Hiddleston) Hester moves out of her passionless, childless marriage to live with this new lover. She soon realizes that between his drinking and his self-centeredness, he has very little to offer her. On the other hand it becomes clear that she is obsessed with her neediness and passion for him. She is caught between a marriage that doesn’t work for her and an attraction and dependency that is equally doomed. This would seem to leave her with tremendous emptiness and a tumble towards a suicidal despair, which is emotionally enhanced by Barbe’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra op 14.  The story is based on a play by Terrence Rattigan and is written and directed by Terrence Davies who uses various flashbacks to try to fill in the back-story. Any student of a psychological drama such as this one yearns to know the determinants of this troubled character. We are only told that her father was a Church Vicar who was quite demanding of her. We are also shown that she was a young woman of wartime London and all the insecurities that must have brought to her.  One poignant scene in the subway during a bombing attack during the war and another of children playing in the rubble give us hints of what may have added up to her tremendous neediness and the fleeting attraction to this war hero. Even if all our intellectual understanding of this character were not fully satisfied, Rachel Weisz conveyed the emotional substance with which we could identify and by which we could be moved. (2012)

***

Monsieur Lazhar- sp  (French with English subtitles) This film was the Canadian nomination for the best foreign film in the 2011 Oscar race. The opening scene takes place in a middle school that is the setting for most of the movie. We see a young student peeking into an empty classroom where he sees his teaching dangling from a rope where she has hanged herself. Starting with this violent event the movie progresses with an examination of the emotional meaning to the young students and to the replacement teacher Monsieur Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag ) an immigrant from Algiers, where he had his own secret  tragedies. The movie is a remarkable accomplishment in that it is mostly these children who are expressing in a subtle manner what this experience has meant to them as well as the nuances of the storyline (which one must follow carefully through the subtitles). Fellag was imported from France for this role, which he handles with great sensitivity and believability. He is able to synchronize the working of his own emotions with those of the children. Much of the credit belongs to writer and director Phillipe Falardeau  who adapted this story which he originally saw as a one person play. He concludes the film with the antithesis of how he began it. (2012)

***

Bernie-sp  This film is what you might call a dark comedy in that it is funny but about a somewhat morbid subject. It is set in a small east Texas town. The story features numerous characters from this town who like a Greek chorus comment on the main protagonist, Bernie Tiede (Jack Black).  He was most beloved man to just about all the folks, even after he did something which according to any law, especially Texas law, should be unforgivable. Tiede is an assistant funeral director, comforter of those grieving, a creative employee, a talented musical director, actor and ultimately even a generous philanthropist. Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) is one of the many widows who Bernie genuinely wants to comfort. She differs from the other widows we meet in two ways. She is ultra wealthy and ultra nasty. Danny Buck  (Matthew McConnaughey, somehow made to be more lanky than hunky) is the local district attorney who has the job to call it like it is, even if the town folks Greek Chorus feels otherwise. We get the feeling from the producer Judd Payne, who spoke at our screening and grew up in such an area, as did writer and director Richard Linklater, that you have to be from that kind of a small western or southern town to appreciate how authentically the average folks in the film were depicted. To us they seemed somewhat stereotyped even after we learned many of these character actors were from small towns in this area.

Black’s portrayal dominates the screen as he gets into the skin of his unusual character. it also gives him a little chance to dance and sing in addition to emoting. The end result is more than just a fun experience as you come away with some questions to ponder in analyzing the films resolution. (2012

****

The Island President- sp – The producers gave this documentary film the tagline, “Can This Man Save the World “. In the Indian Ocean there are a series of small islands called the Maldives with a population of about 400,000. It is the lowest lying country in the world with literally no hills. There are some large building on at least one of the islands but the main industry is tourism with beautiful beaches and high-end hotels. Since 1978 the country had been under the iron rule of President Maaumoon  Abdul Gayoom who was able to harshly suppress any opposition to his ruling party. One of the leaders of the opposition was Mohamed Nasheed who was thrown into jail and spent 18 months in solitary confinement. Eventually a new constitution was established in 2008 which allowed the country’s first multi-party presidential election which elected Mohamed Nasheed as President. This documentary is about this man and how he became a world wide symbol for environmental reform. Nasheed made it his mission to make the world aware of how his country is seriously threatened with extinction if global warming continues and if the water line rises another three feet, which it is on track to do. He made the case that eventually much of the world,  even New York City will be threatened by the rising water which comes with carbon emissions and global warming. Despite opposition by developing countries such as China which feels it needs to use fossil fuels  to continue its growth, Nasheed  carried on an amazing, almost one man, campaign at the all important 2010 Copenhagen World Wide Environmental Conference attended by important representatives from most of the world nations including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton . This film used a very creative and effective approach by following this passionate, very likeable sincere man who pleaded individually and at the plenary sessions to save his country and save the world. In the end, while he couldn’t get full agreement on the exact number to which  carbon emissions should be reduced over a period of time, he got members of this conference for the first time sign a document agreeing to reductions . The emotion of this accomplishment was quite palpable as the viewers felt close to this remarkable man as we followed him throughout his non-stop activities with a musical backdrop effectively provided by 14 songs from Radiohead and some other music by Stars of the Lid. The film was directed and photographed by Jon Shenk and Samuel Goldwyn Films picked it up for distribution. You come away from this movie quite informed and feeling good. It is scheduled for release at the end of March and  President Mohamed Nasheed was supposed to help promote this movie in the US and elsewhere which would allow him continue to crusade for the environment. Unfortunately, a month before the scheduled release there was a coup d’edat in the Maldives and Nasheed was forced to resign and was thrown in jail again. The situation there is evolving and the “ end cards “ for the film are constantly being revised as the political situation changes day by day.(2012)