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Whip It – nf – This is movie which may have appeal to the high school movie set , especially the girls. A 17 year old girl from a small town in Texas played radiantly by Ellen Page ( who was tremendous in Juno ) decides that she can’t live out the aspirations of her mother ( Marcia Gay Harden) and become a beauty queen so she escapes to Austin and joins an all girl roller derby team. The movie and all the characters are filled with clichés. Most of the girls on the team are tough on the outside but have a heart of gold. This includes one roller derby teammate played by Drew Barrymore who also makes her directorial debut with this movie. There is a boyfriend who has a band. She has a best girl friend with whom she has a temporary disagreement. Her Dad just cares about watching football on TV but ultimately comes through for her. It won’t be hard to predict what her mother finally does. Thirty years ago roller derby was popular on TV and I understand it is making somewhat of a comeback in middle America today. This movie will not propel it to center stage. It may be an inspiration of some young girls who can identify with the heroine. (2009)

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The Joneses – sp – Very close to the beginning of the film, you realize that the Jones family who are moving into an affluent suburban area are actually a business team who pretend to be a family of a loving couple and two teenagers. Their purpose is to infiltrate the neighborhood, win the friendship and hearts of each of their peers and influence them to buy and consume all the expensive and glitzy things which they are being paid to promote. This is a clever premise which allows the film to attempt to explore some of the things that are wrong with our society where materialism often predominates over meaningful relationships. David Duchovny does a sensitive portrayal of the so-called Dad of the family. His pretend wife is Demi Moore who is the leader of the “team” who mostly is strictly business but for unexplained reasons shows some ambivalence. Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth do good acting jobs in their roles as pretend teens who take on the youth of the community with more than just parties. There seems to be a lot of driving around in Audis and hitting golf balls as well as promoting cosmetics. While the characters evolved and changed, we in the audience were not very moved. It was part comedic and part a grim movie. Perhaps they couldn’t decide which way to go. The ending was drawn out and didn’t seem right or satisfying. (2010)

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Music Within – nf – Richard Pimentel is a real Viet Nam veteran who was injured in the war and returned home with severely impaired hearing. That experience inspired him to become an activist, author and spokesperson for the disabled. He became one of the major forces behind the American with Disabilities Act of the 1990s. This movie is the story of his journey from a kid with a mentally ill mother, which led him to have a troubled childhood, to the success, which he ultimately had. When he was unable to realize his gift for public speaking, he put things on hold and entered the military. The pathway he took upon his return to civilian life and his skill in convincing employers to hire disabled vets was quite impressive. Thanks to some excellent writing, director Steven Sawalich and his very talented team were able to bring this unforgettable story to the screen. Ron Livingston carries off a very fine portrayal of Pimentel with Melissa George as his girl friend and an excellent job by veteran actor Hector Elizondo as a Speech Professor. However, the most amazing performance of the movie is that of Michael Sheen who plays Art Honeyman a brilliant college student with cerebral palsy who befriends Pimentel and is a key part of the movie. Sheen’s wheel chair performance with a severe speech defect is one of the highlights of the film and should have earned him an Academy Award nomination. This is a period piece and seamlessly with the aid of appropriate music moves through the decades of the 50s through the 90s. This is certainly a tribute to all those who battle with disabilities and find themselves misunderstood. It also is an inspiring story, which shows how one dedicated and passionate person can make a difference, and brings about meaningful change. (2007)

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City Island – sp – It would not surprise us, if a year from now, Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies are up for leading actor and supporting actress awards along with Raymond De Felitta for this screenplay which he directed and maybe even with the picture itself being nominated for one of those shin=ny trophies. We are presented with what seems to be a light- hearted story about a working class somewhat quirky family living on City Island which is actually part of the Bronx in New York City. Vince Rizzo ( Andy Garcia ) and his family live in the house his grandfather built and he works in a Westchester Prison as a corrections officer. Julianna Margulies plays his wife Joyce Rizzo, with a perfect Bronx accent and attitude in stark contrast to the radiant, cool and collected “Good Wife” whom you may have seen her in the television series of that name. They have two children, a daughter who is supposed to be away at college but ends up pole dancing in a club, played very well by Andy Garcia’s real life daughter actress Dominik Garcia-Lorido and a son (Ezra Miller ) who has an appetite for things on the large side. The biggest hidden secret comes from the Garcia character who has a side to him which gives this veteran actor an opportunity to show the full spectrum of emotion from anger to tenderness. His character as do the others show growth and change as well as revealing their inner feelings. Alan Arkin plays a character that he knows as well as anyone could and not surprisingly nails that role. There is a measured, exaggerated quality to all the people in the movie which allows some good comedic moments A climatic scene with the entire family including two additional characters played by Steven Strait and Emily Mortimer all interact for at least several minutes and is orchestrated extremely well with a palette of emotions from laughter to tears which sums up the experience we believe you will have with this outstanding movie. (2009)

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The Greatest – sp – Almost immediately after the movie opens you realize that this is a story about the painful grieving of a family. While in this case it is about the kind of grief most people should not have to experience, it touches upon emotions that everyone has either had or knows that that they can have tomorrow. The writer and first time director Shana Feste shared with us that she probably wrote this because her father had such a loss many years ago and only spoke once to her about it. She researched the subject and her own emotions quite well. She was able to get Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon to buy into this project and bring their maturity and great acting to this film. Then Ms. Fester and her duo of women producers Lynette Howell and Beau Marie St. Clair were able to find young Carey Mulligan, before she received her Oscar nomination for An Education, to play the centerpiece of the young woman who carried within her the essence of this film. All three stars brought to the screen a very palpable realism in their three different but yet very appealing characters, each of whom drew you in as you felt their pain. A trio of three young talented actors rounded out the outstanding cast. The movie has the haunting presence of what we recall from the 1980 Oscar winning film Ordinary People which incidentally had the same Director of Photography, John Bailey. Whereas the older classic showed the disintegration of a family, this one leaves you with the possibility of a rebirth. The experience is definitely worth going through (2010)

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The Secret in Their Eyes – sp – When Juan Jose Campanella is not directing episodes of Law and Order, CSI or the like, he periodically returns to Argentina make a movie. In this case he directed and co-wrote the screenplay of The Secret in Their Eyes. Thus far it is the most successful movie in Argentina in the past thirty-five years and now in just few days after we saw it, we will find out if this Academy Award nominated movie for the Best Foreign Film will win an Oscar. ( addendum note: It won !!) It reminds us of the French movie, Tell No One, one of our all time favorites, as it is also a sophisticated detective story with an easy flowing but yet a complicated plot that keeps you thinking and guessing throughout the story and even afterwards. It is in Spanish, of course, with good subtitles. This movie is not only a mystery and a crime movie but it is also a subtle romantic film which has very good comedic moments. There is the use of a narrative technique that allows you to see the story through the imagination and the memory of the main character Benjamin Esposito played by well-known Argentine actor Ricardo Darin. There are skillfully done movements, which go back and forth in time as well as shifting the point of view, which on a few occasions took a few moments for us to orient ourselves. The acting, directing and photography were superb with great realism and therefore it surprised us to learn that the budget was only two million dollars. As required for all good movies of this genre, there is a strong ending, which will hold your interest and encourage further reflection. (2010)

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The Yellow Handkerchief – sp – 83 year old Arthur Cohn who is a five time Oscar winner with films dating back to 1961 was the producer of this film and guest at our screening. He noted that for many of his great movies, including The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, it was often difficult to get a distributor and the films did not achieve box office success until they won the Oscar. In the case of this current film he told us that be thought that the reason he had trouble getting a distribution (finally picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films) was because this movie does not have sex or any significant violence which many people believe are necessary for a movie to achieve box office success. This film is a road movie which follows Brett, played William Hurt, as he is released from prison after serving 6 years and hitches a ride with a 15 year old girl played by Kristen Stewart (of Vampire movie fame) and slightly older teenage guy played by Eddie Redmayne. Both young people have their own histories of feeling unloved and would like to get away from their unhappy lives. Brett’s history unfolds through a series of short flashbacks as they travel in the south towards New Orleans. He had a troubled youth and hadn’t made much of his life. He thought perhaps things were changing around when he met May played by Maria Bello, but his view of himself as a flawed person along with some particular circumstances caused him to destroy this relationship and end up in jail. As the three travelers who were seemingly going nowhere in their lives get to understand each other and grow, there is a sense of redemption. You see these three misfits and unlikely companions travel in a battered old convertible through Louisiana on their way to New Orleans which is beautifully photographed by award winning Director of Photography Chris Menges. The energy and eternal hope that producer Cohn put into this project (which comes to the to the screen three years after it was filmed) makes us want to root for the this movie to be successful just as we find ourselves also rooting for the characters to make it in their lives. You are left with the dream of the possibility of second chances, which is no small feat. (2008)

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Formosa Betrayed – sp – An FBI agent in the 1980s is following the clues of a murder of a mid-western university professor in search of the killers. If you didn’t know anything about the history of Taiwan alias Formosa, you would still no doubt find this a very riveting, suspenseful, exciting thriller. However, if you know the history of this embattled country or as you may be able to figure it out from the unfolding story, the intrigue becomes even more meaningful. You may remember that little island off the coast of mainland China was the refuge of Chiang Kai-shek and his followers after the communists took over the mainland of China. It became a very strategic location as the United States made a commitment politically, financially and militarily to protect it from the Communists. What you may not have appreciated is that this government was corrupt and oppressed its people in the worst ways possible in order to keep itself in power. His son continued the martial law after Kai-shek’s death in 1975. It was not until a time frame after this movie that Taiwan became a true thriving democracy. Will Tiamo, a co-star of the film was also one the creative forces behind the movie as one of the writers and the person most responsible for raising enough money to make the film before it was even written or cast. He wanted to tell the story of his parent’s generation and the oppressive environment which existed in the land of their birth. FBI agent Jake Kelly played by James Van Der Beek encounters deception, murder, and torture. He also realizes that his own government, for political reasons, is not keen on exposing these terrible things. This all adds up to a top rate adventure story with conflict and a moral dilemma of the main character. The screenplay was based on various true events and was skillfully directed by Adam Kane. Although the movie has just received a distribution deal with a release date at the end of February, 2010, we suspect that it may not make it to your local theater or hang around there very long. So if you are at all inclined to see an exciting history lesson, be sure to look for it or put it on your Netflix queue. (2010)

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Avatar – rm- We didn’t see this film until after it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture as well as many other awards. We stand by our prediction that Hurt Locker will earn the award for best picture. Avatar and director/writer/producer James Cameron deserve awards and acclaim for the technical accomplishments in the use of 3D, computer generated animation and special effects. The “out of this world” flying, at times gigantic, horse/dragon like creatures were very impressive although their continued presence for much of the movie was not our cup of tea. The appearance of the avatars as well as that of the people who were being visited or we should say the natives of the land that was being invaded was also quite creative. All their facial features were completely non-human as was the presence of their tail and many of their mannerisms, but yet their behavior was all too human. It was most of the humans who were engaging in the inhumane actions. While the plot was somewhat simple, familiar and predictable, it was the symbolism and important themes that raised the value of the film. One could not help but be reminded of the experience of the native Americans or the native inhabitants of so many other places that have been invaded by intruders seeking to plunder their land. There was a green theme with a spiritual love of nature. Also clear was the presence of strong, good women who possessed both strength of character and strength of purpose. Some of the scenes with helicopter like gun ships setting this very special countryside aflame with bright orange fire explosions with the background radio chatter of the invading forces were reminiscent of scenes from the Viet Nam War and perhaps some later day events. It is probably fair to say that this is an anti-war film. Some might say it is anti-American and others might feel it is not a fair depiction of the real good guys. It certainly is cutting edge and may be the beginning of a new genre. (2009)

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North Face – sp – If you are at all interested in mountain climbing – dangerous mountain climbing, or if you think you might want to learn more about risk taking mountain climbing this movie is for you. This is an award winning German film with English subtitles, set in Germany in 1936. The government has encouraged German mountain climbers to show the world how brave and strong they are by climbing this most difficult mountain. The chilling (and we do mean ice cold and freezing) attempt to do this feat is the main plot of this film. It is based on a true story. Most of it, including all the life and death parts of the movie, are based on known facts of an actual occurrence. One of the guests at our film course was a young alpine mountain climber who not only had heard of the actual events shown but verified that all the situations on the mountain , pitfalls and climbing techniques with pitons and ropes etc were quite authentic. This was a period piece nicely depicting the lavish hotel setting at the base of the mountain. However, most of the two hours and one minute of this film take place in the outside bitter cold. We also learned that this movie is in the tradition of some great German mountain climbing movies which we haven’t seen. While we were caught up with the suspense and adventure, we did feel there was too much time up there in the mountain with snow continually falling or alternating between flakes to avalanches. The movie was very skillfully done. The story line was interesting and painful, but wasn’t complex and stimulating enough for all we had to bear in watching it. (2010)