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J Edgar rm-   There are very few Americans who can be recognized without their last name. J. Edgar Hoover is one of them. Clint (Eastwood) is another such name who directed this biopic about the man who served nine US Presidents and is the person most responsible for the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as we know it today. Enter Leonardo , not DaVinci but DiCaprio who certainly deserves consideration for an Oscar nomination for his magnificent depiction of J. Edgar from his early days in law enforcement until his death as the revered, feared and even despised leader of the FBI. Hoover is shown initially to be a patriot and a sincere crime fighter but his passion and his hate of those he felt were enemies led him ultimately to gather power, overstep his authority, attempt to glorify himself and use his position to blackmail and intimidate anyone who was in his way. Perhaps the most revealing part of this character study was the demonstration of this man to have a stunted emotional growth. He is shown to be completely under the sway of his mother (Judi Dench ) and at least in this version to have an inability to have an adult relationship  with women. His comfort and attachment to Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer ) whom he hired, befriended, made him his Associate Director of the FBI and ultimately lived with,  is a major part of this film. Hammer should be up for a supporting actor award winning performance as he ages from dapper young FBI agent to sickly old man during the course of the film.  It is suggested but never fully clarified wither they had an overt sexual relationship but nevertheless the irony is in your face that J. Edgar sought out other peoples’ secrets which he used against them while he had a very big one himself. This character’s ambivalence and underdeveloped personality makes it hard for us hate him , love him or identify with his persona. If anything we feel sorry for him. Despite the fact that there was nothing in the film to keep us on the edge of our seats, the 2hours and 17 minutes of the film did not seem boring  with credit to Clint’s ability to keep things moving and his skill in telling his story. (2011)

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A Separation –sp (with subtitles )   One of the remarkable things about this movie is that Iran chose it be it’s Oscar nominee for the best international film. It shows the conflicting values in Iran today. The focus of the film is on two families who find themselves in a major disagreement. The story addresses Iranian life in regard to divorce, child custody, carrying for an Alzheimer parent, fundamentalism, oppression of women as well as the economic problems and the legal system of this country. It also raises the question of whether given a choice might a family there choose to emigrate to another country. The movie  obviously generated a great deal of interest in Iran as it is on it’s way to being one of the most successful homegrown movies ever made there. The film is written, produced and directed by experienced filmmaker  Ashgar  Farhadi. American filmgoers can identify with particularly the dilemma Termeh, the daughter of one of the couples, who agonizes over what is the truth of  the disagreements between these families and most importantly with which one of her divorcing parents she would choice to live. This key role is played by Sarina Farhadi , daughter of the filmmaker, who was a preteen when the movie was produced. The acting all around was quite good. It is a dialogue driven movie so you must become immersed in the subtitles. You certainly get a feel of what everyday life might be like in an urban city in Iran. You also get an insight into what may be  similarities and  differences of this family crisis in a country about which most of us know very little .

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Still Bill- nf  It is very possible that you have never heard of  singer songwriter Bill Withers unless you are a big fan of rhythm and blues of the 1970s-1980s and thereabouts. But almost for sure  you have heard recordings of him singing his music , Lean on Me, Aint No Sunshine, Just the Two of Us and many other great hits of that time. Damani Baker and Alex Vlack as young filmmakers knew about his music and a little about the man and as is often the case with Independent films, it took them about 11 years to make this documentary. Needless to say , it has a great music track. It is a film not just about the man and his music but it is about the character of man who wasn’t out for the adulation and glory that easily descended upon him. He cared about expressing himself in the stories that he wanted to tell through his music. He led an unlikely career and then faded from the public music scene at the height of his fame. He was born the youngest of 6 children in the  coal mining town of Slab Folk  West Virgina . His grandfather was born a slave and he was greatly influenced by his grandmother whom he immortalized in one of his classic songs, Grandma’s Hand . He stuttered for the first 28 years of his life  He enlisted in the US Navy and worked as a mechanic and then took a job in an aircraft factory. Around this time he started playing the guitar and writing songs and decided to give it a try when he was given the opportunity to record an album. He had no idea if it would work out and was prepared to continue his work “ installing Johns on planes.” Almost overnight his album was a gigantic hit and he found himself on the Johnny Carson show. This documentary begins with a 70 year old seemingly very contented Bill Withers who hasn’t been on the music scene for probably at least 20 years. He is married and his daughter is  finding her way as a singer. He reflects on his career and how he has faded into the background because, as he says, he just doesn’t have much to say at present. He appears to be financially secure having had 3 gold albums with numerous successful songs and having toured and sang with many great musicians. The film makers show the essence of this man through informal conversations with several of his friends including Tavis Smiley, Jim Brown (the football player) , Bill Russell (the basketball player) , his son, wife, daughter and others.  At times he tears up as for example when he visits a school where young students with stuttering problems put on a small concert for him. In a heartwarming sequence although perhaps somewhat contrived, he decides to go back into the studio with a good friend who is a blind musician and his daughter. They begin to write and record. Wither’s delight in the process and in the music seems genuine and is wonderful to watch. The documentary ends on this note. You get the feeling that there is now more to come. (2009)

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In Darkness- sp-  ( English subtitles ) If you are ready, willing and able to handle another heavy duty holocaust movie, this  one may be right for you. 80% of the film takes place in the dark sewers underneath the Polish ghetto of the city of Lvov, that is being wiped out by the Nazis. You will need to endure the pain and suffering that the men, women and children are going through for 2 hours and 25 minutes although that is nothing compared to the 14 months which was the duration for the Jews there in reality. Polish movie director and sometimes US television director ( episodes of The Wire and Treme) Agnieszka Holland who was guest at the  preview screening,  latched on to this true story which in total took eight years to make it to the screen from a book by one of the survivors. She was reluctant to cut the length of film because she wanted the audience to experience a sense of the prolonged hardship that these people were going through.  Although gripping and suspenseful, we were aware that we were being shown all the expected episodes of starving people hiding in the sewers, rats running around, everyone hungry and thirsty, children trying to play their chidhood games, some people being claustrophobic, almost being discovered by the Nazis , trying to celebrate the Jewish holidays, and a baby being born in these circumstances. All the actors were  excellent and apparently are well known stars in their own country. Of particular note is Robert Wieckiewicz who plays the man who after being not such a nice guy turns out to a “righteous gentile.” Observing the changes that he undergoes in response to the heroism of the people he is hiding is the highlight of this movie. The film is being  nominated for an Oscar  as the Polish entry for best foreign film. It has already won an award at the Telluride Film Festival and will open in the US in January. It is not an easy movie to watch but we came away from it being glad it was made and that it will be there to be shown to future generations. (2011)

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A Dangerous Method – rm-  As people who have some some acquaintance with psychoanalytic theory and it’s history, we were drawn to want to see this movie. The psychiatrist among the two of us found it a more enjoyable experience although we both found many deficiencies in the movie. This movie, directed by David Cronenberg, with a screenplay by Chrisopher Hampton which came from a book by John Kerr, of course is based on real people and highlights the break between Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung who at one time Freud had thought would be his heir apparent to the psychoanalytic movement. The movie starts off in the early 1900s as a young women, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) is involuntarily brought to the Burgholzi, a  psychiatric hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, run by the famed Eugen Bleuler. Her exaggerated mannerisms and dramatic presentation suggests the type of “hysterical” patients who were known to be hospitalized in those days. Jung (Michael Fassbender) becomes her psychiatrist at the hospital and begins to use the new psychoanalytic method which Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) in Vienna has advocated. He ultimately is shown  becoming drawn into a sadomachistic sexual romantic affair with her. Jung travels to Vienna and meets with Freud several times in which they discuss theoretical issues as well as this patient. Over time Freud is depicted as becoming disenchanted with his previously highly regarded younger colleague. The reasons for this rift would appear to be Jung’s willingness to go beyond Freud’s concept of sexuality and psychic determinism and bring in such ideas as the supernatural, premonitions, telepathy, religion and many others that were not explained in much detail in the movie. In fact, the more well known ideas of Jung about the collective unconscious , symbolism and dream analysis were not very well clarified. Freud appeared to be concerned that any significant deviation from his main thesis and what he believed was the scientific method might be a reason for his theories to fail to gain wide acceptance. As best we can determine, in reality the actual affair between Jung and Speilrein was suspected, but historically it was  not universally agreed that it had actually occurred. In this movie it is shown that  Speilrein wrote to Freud and told him of her affair after Jung rejected her. Freud did not believe her and she subsequently is depicted as convincing Jung to acknowledge the affair to Freud who then gave this as an additional reason for cutting his ties with Jung. Once again Freud is very concerned about the appearance of his analytic movement and such behavior as an affair with one’s patient  at that time as well as at present would be highly unethical. The nature of the affair and the meaning of their attraction to each other is really a key part of this movie, whether it actually happened or not. The characters in their dialogue state that Jung, who is shown being torn by the relationship, views attraction to his patient to be  on the “dark side” and that with his wife on the “loving” side.  Yet he declares his undying  love for Spelrein and is bereft by her leaving him. We are not provided with real insight inot this relationship nor any significant understaning of Jung’s conflict. The film also does not do enough to explicate Jung’s ideas and their influence on Spielrein. While we more often proclaim that a movie should have been tightened up and shortened we believe this film needed a clearer illustration of the ideas that this story was supposed to be  about.  The acting in the film was very strong. The atmosphere of Freud’s office, the streets , people’s dress, horse drawn vehicles and early motor cars made it a wonderful period piece. But alas, as much as we were interested to learn about these people, we felt we came up short in our understanding as well as in caring about them.  (2011)

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Young Adult-sp– Director Jason Reitman (Up In the Air, Thank You For Smoking, Juno) who was a guest at our preview screening compared his directing style to that of this father Ivan Reitman (Animal House, Ghost Busters, Twins). He explained whereas his father likes to make movies that make you feel good, he prefers films that make you uncomfortable. He succeeded in his goal using the screenplay written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and what should be an award winning performance by Charlize Theron.

She plays Mavis Gary a very attractive (of course), divorced, moderately successful writer without any meaningful relationships in her life who learns that her old high school boyfriend and his wife have just had their first child. This stirs her up and sets her off on a mission to return to her hometown, find her old boyfriend, rekindle their true love which she feels has always been there, and try to get him to go off into the sunset with her. Theron makes this unbelievable character quite believable in the most subtle manner as she picks her way through her home town, picking at her hair and showing a propensity to put away drinks. Her determination begins to get scary as she casually shares her plan with old high school friends that she meets, a visit with her parents and her meeting with her old bf (Patrick Wilson ) and his wife (Elizabeth Reaser). The depth of this character or perhaps the lack of it is highlighted in her encounters with one high school classmate Matt (Patton Oswalt) who is has been damaged physically on the outside  as much as we realize that she is damaged on the inside. There is a great musical background throughout the movie and the closing song is Diana Ross singing “ When We Grow Up” from the classic Marlo Thomas album “Free to Be You and Me” This provides the depressing mood of this film which sadly for this character highlights the line “We don’t have to change at all.”(2011)

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My Father’s Glory – nf  (In French with English voiceover or subtitles). The movie is based on the best selling memoirs of French novelist and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol and is directed by Yves Robert. If we had known the story of the movie, we probably would have passed on it. Somehow it ended up on our Netflix queue, which meant someone, or some publication recommended it highly, so we let it roll (so to speak). It is a beautifully framed picturesque film set in the early 1900s. It is seen through the eyes of an older Frenchmen who is the narrator recalling his childhood especially, his view of his father. Most of the movie shows his family’s summer vacation, which includes his mother, sibs, uncle and aunt and their small children in the countryside and mountains in southern France. Being a city boy he is intrigued with  nature and the wide open country experience with mountains, birds and game . He idolizes his schoolteacher father and has some problems with seeing his uncle, an experienced woodsman who is more knowledgeable in shooting and hunting. He encounters a young local boy his age with whom he becomes friendly and even considers sneaking off and staying by himself in the countryside. Aside from being magnificently photographed, it is a touching, heartwarming film with some comedic moments. I think it probably is the perfect movie to watch with a preadolescent son or grandson. (1990)

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Anonymous– sp- John Orloff, as an undergraduate was always interested in the question of whether or not William Shakespeare really wrote the masterpieces that have been attributed to him. Orloff pondered this concern during his time in film school and has been pitching various versions of this screen play for the past 15 years. Finally Columbia Pictures put up 30 million dollars (a relatively small sum) for this movie to be made under the direction of Roland Emmerich who is best known for elaborately staged blockbuster films such as Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot, 10000 BC and 2012. This movie as you might imagine is a period piece with lots of 16^th century costumes and filled with Shakespearian dialog (or dialog from whomever actually may have written it back then). The setting which encompasses  many streets, buildings including the famed Globe Theater and hoards of people appears quite authentic although they were mostly produced by the magic of computer technology and digitalization. The storyline is that Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, (Rhys Ifans) was the original author but in his royal position he couldn’t acknowledge the nature of his writings. He secretly gave his written works to a young writer named Ben Johnson (Sebastain Armesto) who was too involved in his own budding literary works to want to take ownership or produce them. He instead passed them on to William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall), a journeyman actor  who also was sworn to secrecy but gladly took credit for them. Shakespeare who was far from a writer himself began to stage the plays which immediately received great acclaim. Vanessa Redgrave played Queen Elizabeth I and Redgrave’s own daughter (Joely Richardson) had the role of the Queen at a younger age. There of course were subplots and various intrigues including flashbacks in time.   Many fine Shakespearian actors were cast in this film which were a great showcase for their talents. At times we lost track where in time we were or who was who in the secondary characters. History buffs of this period of time as well as Shakespearian aficionados will enjoy the storyline and dialog respectively. Rather than solve  the age old authorship conundrum, in the end this movie made an all out effort to entertain us with a fanciful dramatic well acted story.

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Contagion-rm  Shortly before we saw this movie we had our yearly flu vaccine. The news of  today happens to be reporting that cantaloupe from Colorado infected with deadly bacteria already have killed 10 people. We know about the SARS epidemic almost 10 years ago that killed almost 1000 people worldwide before being controlled. Certainly we are still in the midst of the AIDS epidemic that has killed many millions of people although our knowledge about this disease and our ability to offer limited treatment has allowed some control over it  (although there is still not a proven vaccine).  So many of us come to Contagion with a mindset that everything that we see in this movie could really happen including the deaths of millions of people. Director Steven Soderbergh depicts the events from different parts of the world as well as the activities inside the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta in a most realistic manner. This almost could have been a documentary film. Perhaps after we have something similar really happen in the future, people will look back on this movie and say they really nailed it . So we certainly  can’t put this movie in the science fiction category. If it isn’t a doc and it isn’t  sci-fi,  it must be a  drama without really much romance or mystery (they know they have  a disease and have to make the vaccine- no real mystery). Despite very fine performances by Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne, Kate Winslow and Gwyneth Paltrow, we found we didn’t really care very much about the characters. They were more or less stereotyped or perhaps  “cardboard” without any real dimensions to them. Perhaps that was the idea. They could be everyman or women who lives their lives and then gets a terrible infectious disease or are threatened with getting it. We saw people do desperate things to get the vaccine or food and supplies when they weren’t available but we didn’t really see anyone struggle with any ethical dilemmas. Elliot Gould has a brief appearance in the film as a scientist who was making some breakthrough research and then he was shut down because he wasn’t part of the elite CDC team and we never hear from him again!  Not everyone who may see this movie knows about the potential of infectious disease lurking around the corner that might not be controlled by “the authorities” Others who know better sometimes use a denial mechanism to avoid thinking about the dire possibilities. A movie such as this one might offer a big scare to such folks and who will then feel much better when it is over and they are safe as the walk out of the theater (for now). Perhaps this should be in the “ horror/thriller” genre, which often makes a great movie experience for many people. So if this seems right for you, go for it. (2011)

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I Don’t Know How She Does It- rm– Remember the main character of the Sex and The City TV series and subsequent films? Well, imagine that instead of  being Carrie the writer, she was Kate Reddy a financial analyst and try to picture what her life might be like 10 or 15 years after she was running around Manhattan trying to find Mr. Big. Imagine that she is now married with two children living in Boston struggling to be the perfect working mother, trying to meet the needs of her kids as every morning she says hello to her nanny while saying goodbye to her husband before rushing off to her high powered job. We hear the narration voice of Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker  of course) reflecting her thoughts as she  ponders and explains her problems. We meet Richard, her husband  (Greg Kinnear) who is a lovely guy just beginning to get his big break at his job but is beginning to feel frustrated and deserted as Kate is taking trips out of town. She  is on the verge of closing a great deal working with Mr Big (Pierce Brosnan) of the stock portfolios. Her home life is best summed up by her late talking 2 year old finally saying his first words , “Bye Bye mommy” and her mother-in-law suggesting that the kid may have talked earlier if she had been around more. This movie will give at least two generations of working women a great deal to identify with. Maybe if Kate closes her deal she will have enough clout at her job so she can stay home when she wants to be with her kids, make a snowman with them when it snows and take her kids for landmark haircuts etc. But this is certainly not your middle class working family and what about the situation where such couple is forced to work long hours to make ends meet.?  Writers Arline McKenna (screenplay) and Allison Peason (novel) and director Douglas McGrath seem to have mixed feelings on their view of the role women and family today. On one hand despite her loving her career, Kate does strive towards ultimately putting family first. But the stay at home moms seen in this film (Busy Phillipps, Sarh Shahl and others ) are depicted in a self indulgent very unflattering manner which some are bound to find offensive.

If you are inclined to see this film because you are looking for some kind of validation of what your family has been through or is going through now, most probably you will find it fun to watch. Kelsey Grammer will add to the fun as one of her bosses as will Seth Myers as Kate’s nemesis at work. But be advised there is nothing ground breaking or really stimulating that is going to be found in this very light comedy. (2011)