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The Class – rm – This is a French movie about a classroom of 14 and 15 year old teenager’s children and their interaction with a teacher. It is a slice of life of a country where immigration and different cultures influences the relationships in a classroom as does the usual teenage conflicts with authority. Perhaps something was lost in the translation on us but we didn’t get drawn into this movie although it appears to be very well done and actually won some film awards. (in French with subtitles) 2008

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The Proposal – rm – This is another one of those mediocre movies offered to us as the only choice on a cross-country flight, which Susan chose to see. It stars Sandra Bullock who plays a demanding high powered boss who realizes that she has to get married to keep from being deported back to Canada because she didn’t complete her US citizenship papers. She convinces her compliant ambitious male assistant played by Ryan Reynolds to agree to do the nuptial deed. All the expected events then begin to happen. It might make you think of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”. The storyline was really quite predictable with no unforgettable moments. It doesn’t deserve our recommendation but Susan admits that she enjoyed it. 2009

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Me and You and Everyone We Know – nf – This is a slice of life with characters who have problems communicating in the everyday modern world. It includes a divorced shoe salesman and father of two children( John Hawkes ) and a young performance artist( Miranda July) who is drawn to him. We thought this was a movie we wanted to see but we couldn’t relate very well to the characters. Although it was well performed particularly by the child actors we would suggest a pass on this one. 2005

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Terminator Salvation – nf – This is a prequel of the other Terminator movies and stars Christian Bales and Sam Worthington. It is a big budget film with lots of special effects. Early in the film there is some scrolling explanation of the setting which is easy to miss. Basically the world has been taken over by very smart machines which appear to be winning the war against the bands of surviving humans who haven’t given up yet. There is some time travel and a plot for one of the characters to save his father as a young man. There are lots of pyrotechnics, explosions with robots and machines that won’t die. Even Arnold, our Governor makes a fleeting digitalized appearance. If you are drawn to this movie perhaps if you look at this four minute trailer, it will be enough for you.

We think there are some great films out there to see but this is not one of them. 2009

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Four Seasons Lodge – rm – We were drawn to the subject matter and sought out the one theatre showing this movie. It is a documentary about a  group of elderly Holocaust survivors in their 80s and 90s who come together each summer for a vacation in bungalow colony in the Catskills .They greet their old friends with such warmth as they are so glad to see each other once again. They dance to a small live band playing their kind of music. They feel a special kinship for each other for good reason as they share the special experience as survivors. There aren’t many details described about their experience in the camp but the men seem more willing to bring up the subject. One man mentions that the infamous Joseph Mengale experimented on him when he was a child. Another notes how he could never get sick when he was in the camp because that would mean he was sent off to the ovens. He then adds he has continued never to be sick a day of his rather long life, almost as if he is still afraid of the fate that would await him if he slows down. One man became a very accomplished professional soccer player in Germany after the war but felt that his achievements were underplayed in the press because he was Jewish. Two women note that after the war they had no family but each other. They continued to be soul mates during their marriages and now into their old age as widows are dear friends. The aging bungalow colony is facing extinction as the people in charge are planning to sell it but there is a protest from the lodgers. Their determination to see their reunion home be there for whatever additional summers they may have is a metaphor for their ability to survive. The Holocaust and Jewish museums will deliver much more in depth stories and information then was presented here about the Holocaust experience. The people here will probably remind you of relatives you have known. It is important and worthwhile that this slice of the latter part of their lives has been captured. It would be most likely cherished by their families. It is something that the rest of us are glad we have in the closet but probably would not feel a need to recommend that others watch it. (2009)

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Election – nf – We recently had a Netflix viewing of this 1999 movie which is a period piece set to take place 20-25 years earlier. It starred Reese Witherspoon as an ambitious determined high school student bound for the student council presidency and Matthew Broderick as her high school teacher who thinks he is a happy dedicated person doing just what he was meant to do. The story based on a novel by Tom Perotta with an Oscar winning screen play by the director Alexander Payne is seen mostly through the eyes of the teacher although pieces of narration are shown through the view of some of the other characters. The main plot deals with the high school election when two other students are drawn into a very contentious race with the preexisting favorite, each having their own motivation. However, in a somewhat comedic and satiric way the film shows how this teacher makes a complete mess of his life and ultimately has to try and reinvent himself. The movie was shot in the Omaha area of Nebraska near where the director grew up. A typical high school was used for most of the scenes with real students playing the extras and some parts including the male student lead who ran for president. Witherspoon and Broderick captured their characters quite well and Witherspoon actually won the Teen Choice Award for the best “hissy hit”. It was fun to watch and done well but at this point in time we can’t recommend that you put it very high in your Netflix queue, as there are much better films available out there. (1999)

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The Men Who Stare At Goats – sp – This is a comedy, or more specifically, a farce that is trying to make fun of the US Army for some ventures that they made into exploring the use of new age techniques and the potential of the application of the paranormal for fighting the enemy. The story is loosely based on book by Jon Ronson published in 2004 where he described the ideas of Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon who served in Vietnam War and in the late 1970s proposed the formation of the First Earth Battalion. He produced a 125-page manual of drawings, graphs, maps, polemical essays and point by point redesigns of every aspect of military life. Movie producer Paul Lister who was the guest at our film course told us that the actual manual was shown in the movie. In that manual it was proposed that rather than using bullets and munitions, a new force would attempt to first win the hearts and minds of the enemy by doing such things as using positive vibrations, carrying “symbolic animals” of peace—such as baby lambs—into hostile countries, greeting people with “sparkly eyes.” There was a bit in the movie where the character played by George Clooney tries to flash his eyes to bring about this effect. The overall storyline is that a recently divorced, unhappy newspaper reporter played by Ewan McGregor goes to Iraq to find a good story and meets

Clooney who tells how he is a former Jedi of the above group and is reactivated for a new mission. You add Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges to the mix with this premise and you get some good delivery of comedic situations, which brought about some loud laughs in the movie theater. There are attempts at “remote viewing” walking through walls, killing goats by starring at them etc. They also brought in the idea of giving LSD to people without them knowing it, which the US and the CIA are known to have actually done about 50 years ago. A real film clip shown in the movie of a news report of Iraqi prisoners continually being subjected to bothersome music to break them down to get information. Thus the film seems to also be attempting to satirize recent US actions with prisoners as well as the earlier time when the Earth Battalion was being proposed. Technically speaking, they are also confusing psychological warfare with paranormal or new age warfare. But after all, it is a comedy albeit it somewhat slapstick. In the end the movie goes nowhere. The targets of the satire are nebulous. It was fluffy without any real depth. (2009)

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Brief Interviews With Hideous Men – sp – This is a somewhat unusual film which uses a mostly non narrative style of brief interviews with men plus a series of disjointed scenes of interaction mostly between the young women researcher played by Julianne Nicholson and various men. There appears to be an attempt to provide insight into these men’s relationships with women and perhaps into their sexual feelings. The screenplay was written and directed by John Krasinski in his first movie who also acted in it. The content was taken from the writings of David Forster Wallace an essayist and novelist who died last year by suicide at the age of 46. He apparently has a large following that meet regularly on the Internet to discuss his obtuse writings. The acting in the movie was quite good and included Tim Hutton. The Director of Photography was renowned cinematographer John Bailey who was a guest at our screening. He described how three different editors all tried their hand at putting together this movie. In our opinion we don’t see the threads that this final version used. There was one small segment in the film, which seemed unrelated to the others but was quite riveting. It showed an older black man recounting the inner life and feelings of his father who worked for many years as an attendant in a high-end hotel men’s room. We will be surprised if this movie generates much momentum and may not even make it to your local screen. (2009)

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He’s Just Not That In To You – rm – We decided to watch this movie on a recent NY-LA flight. We thought that this film with Jenifer Anisten, Ben Afflick, Drew Barrymore, Scarlet Johannson and Kevin Conolly (from Entourage) might be a light movie that would fit the bill. After seeing it, we didn’t quite agree on how to score it so we averaged or our ratings. Susan thought it was a fluffy but enjoyable movie which depicted well contemporary dating relationships of young people but in a humorous fashion, Michael thought it was a unimaginative film which wasn’t worth the time even on a boring plane trip (He should have stayed with his book). It did demonstrate how cell phone, texting, email, Facebook and MySpace (they seem to have left out Twitter) all are a crucial part of the singles scene. Maybe, Michael took it a little too seriously, but he also thought it was demeaning to women. We hope this analysis doesn’t peak your curiosity to see it. 2009

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Gigantic – sp – This is another one of those Independent film that picks up some well known actors which in this case it is why it probably gets distribution. Twenty eight year old single man decides he wants to adopt a Chinese baby. He meets and is attracted to quirky and somewhat unstable girl whose father played by John Goodman grabs your attention, as did the young man’s father played by Ed Asner. Despite it being well acted, we didn’t think the movie was really worth seeing. Screen writer and first time director Matt Aselton was the guest speaker at our film course and confirmed how the characters were not meant to be fully developed and how the story was supposed to keep the viewers off balance and really not be clearly understood (which we noted and agreed). He couldn’t explain, nor could we guess, the reason for the title of the movie. 2009