C’mon C’mon ( Amazon)
***

Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, a radio journalist who travels around the country asking kids about their views of the world and future. The kids interviewed were not actors and it is interesting to hear the variety of children’s views about life.

Things happen, and Johnny ends up taking care of his nephew Jesse who is played by 11-year-old British child actor Woody Norman. Johnny’s mother (Gabby Hoffmann) had to travel to another city to care for her husband who has some emotional problems, so now Johnny has a partner as he travels around the country interviewing kids. They travel from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans. The story is the brainchild of Mike Mills who wrote the screenplay and apparently worked closely with the uncle-nephew duo directing the filming as they travel around. The movie was made in black and white, which perhaps makes it seem like a newsreel of real life. We got two take-aways from the film. On one hand, it is an optimistic view of the world through the eyes of young people. It is also an examination of meaningful family relationships even when there are conflicts and difficult circumstances in early life. The brother and sister show a caring and a trust between them even if it might not have always been that way. Also, we see the uncle and nephew develop a deep-rooted caring for each other although it takes a while for it to happen on this very unique road trip.

The film is sweet and charming, even as it depicts the difficult challenges of everyday life. It is clear how hard it is to be a parent, as well as how many obstacles there are for kids to overcome. The characters, while unique, draw you in to the universality of the need for understanding and connection and the rewards of experiencing transformation.

House of Gucci
***

Lady Gaga demonstrated that in addition to her well-known singing talent, she had great acting chops. She played the girlfriend, then wife, and a lot more of one of the Gucci heirs magnificently portrayed by Adam Driver. This is a biographical crime drama. The film is directed by Ridley Scott and is based on the 2001 book by Sara Gay Forden titled “House of Gucci: A Sensational Story Of Murder, Madness, Glamor, And Greed,” which tells it all. At times, you may lose a beat of the story line or the role of a specific character, but the overall cinematic experience is quite engrossing. The supporting cast is great and features Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, and Al Pacino.

We found it interesting to learn that Lady Gaga took into account how her longtime friend Tony Bennett felt about Italians being represented in films in terms of crime and that she aspired to “make a real person out of her character and not a caricature.” To achieve this she studied the voice and vocal cadence as well as the attitude of the real person she was portraying and tried to be “authentic from the perspective of a woman, not an Italian American woman.” She studied for 18 months speaking in accent for nine months of this period. She also ad libbed many of her lines including the film’s iconic quote “father, son, and House of Gucci”, which went viral after the release of the film. (The above information is from Wikipedia).