****

Super Size Me- nf  We decided to see this documentary which we had missed when  it  came out 6 or 7 years ago. The topic of obesity in American and what we can do it about it seems to be as relevant today as when this film was made. It also pertains to the  current political dialog as one side of the debate appears to be saying that the government and it’s  regulatory bureaucracy should keep it’s hands off successful business enterprises especially ones that hires lots and lots of people. McDonalds fits that category and millions of people voluntarily eat there and clearly endanger their own and their children’s health. The film showed that McDonalds especially markets to children and cultivates many of them as lifetime customers. Incidentally that life expectancy will probably be lower than if they had chosen to eat healthier foods. At the rate that McDonalds and other fast food businesses are succeeding, one of three children will develop diabetes by the time they are adults. Whenever we drive by a local high school and a local Community College we have been dramatically impressed how many kids walking around are quite obese. Film maker and director Morgan Spurlock with a light touch uses humor, human interest, well documented facts, some credible interviews mixed with a realistic scare tactic to hold the interest of the audience. He also pulls in the viewers with his project to go on a full time 3 meals/day McDonalds diet for 30 days. He is closely monitored by a team of health experts while he diligently pursues this task and even has a rule where he will “supersize” his food item whenever he is asked by his order taker if he wants to do this. While very few people will go on such a radical diet, Spurlock makes his point as he gains 25 pounds in the 30 days and develops dangerously high blood  lipid levels and begins to show liver damage . This film  is really a model in what a documentary should be. It takes an important topic, addresses it with facts figures and  talking head experts but yet has a story line which holds the interest of the viewer with a time thread which moves the film along. Spurlock, the centerpiece is likeable, serious, dedicated but with a nice sense of humor. This film with a few small edits should be shown to kids from middle school through college age if they have not caught the message by then. The DVD includes an interview by Spurlock made after the film came out with Eric Schlosser author of the book  Fast Food Nation which doubles the value of this DVD experience. Scholosser has a whole new set of  facts, figures as well as some very revealing insights into McDonalds and the fast food industry. The tagline on the DVD is “a film of epic proportion”. We would add this is something you can really sink your teeth into. (2004

****

Moneyball- rm  A major movie which deals with the complexities of baseball stands a good chance of capturing a big piece of the American pie. When you add a star such as Brad Pitt you have the recipe for a perfect dessert. However, this film which emerges on the scene as major league baseball is gearing for the playoff season, deals with more than just our national pastime. It is a metaphor for the problems facing so many businesses today as they realize that in order to win in today’s competitive world, you have to be more than the biggest guy around with most bucks. You have to be smart, understand modern technology and be creative. That is exactly what Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics and his trustworthy Assistant Manager and computer nerd, Yale graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill)  set out to prove when he realized that the meager salary cap that his owner gave him for his team couldn’t hold a candle to the one that the  New York Yankees had available to them. Baseball fans, most of whom understand the fine points of the game will appreciate the logic of the idea that three guys who all together get on base as often as the big gun who makes several times all their salaries combined might be better value to draft or hold on the team. This thesis based on real events is played out with drama, humor and much realism assisted by very realistic actors playing baseball, real baseball video clips and the voices of real baseball announcers. Brad Pitt infuses into Billy Beane the determination, inner confidence and likeability that holds the attention of the audience. We shouldn’t forget a very strong  (as usual) supporting role played by Phllip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe, the A’s manager. The movie is directed by Bennett Miller and the screenplay co-written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, the latter being  well known for producing riveting dialog which also characterized this production.  (2011)

**** 

Puncture-sp– Imagine if a simple modification, costing a few cents per item, in the manufacture of a syringe and needle used for medical injections could have saved 800,000 lives in the United States and probably many times that all over the world. But what if there is tremendous resistance to doing this because changing this system would disrupt the scheme where only certain manufactures are allowed to sell their products to hospitals and there is an elaborate kick-back system in place worth at least mutli-millions of dollars. This is the storyline of this movie based on a true story that the Kassen brothers decided that they wanted to make once they learned of the details from the writings of attorney Paul Danizer one of the participants of this unbelievable situation.  Mark and Adam Kassen grew up in a family that had some connection to the medical supply business so they knew how controlling the large companies could be. They got Chris Lopate to come up with a great screen play which the two brothers made into this film

Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) and Paul Danizer (Mark Kassen, also co-director) were high school buddies who now have a small personal injury law firm in Houston, Texas.  Mike is a drug addict but brilliant and Paul is a family man but they work well together. They come across Vicki (Vinessa Shaw), an ER nurse, who suffered a needle stick while injecting a thrashing patient that lead to her developing AIDS. She brings them to Jeffrey Dancort (Marshall Bell) who is the inventor of the safe syringe/needle device that hospitals don’t even want to look out even though it is obvious to all nurses and others that it would save lots of lives. The next thing they know they are battling the big guys with their big lawyers and lots of money. If the story sounds familiar, think Erin Brockovich. It is David versus Goliath except David is busy much of the time sniffing cocaine.  We would like to say that this is a complete fairy tale and nothing like this really happens in the U.S. Obvioulsy however it really does happen. If a lawyer has a good case they can become very wealthy as there are many variations on successful class action lawsuits that we read about all the time. But as we see in this story, it isn’t easy to pull it off and the big guys often do win the day. This film was engrossing, bold, realistic, powerful and a little scary when you realize that things like this happen all time.(2011)

****

The Help-rm   The weekend that we saw this move,  the book on which it is based after 43 weeks reached #1 on the NY Times Best Seller List. Over the past two decades there have only been four books that spent 20 or more weeks on this list before reaching #1. This indicates that there are a good number of the people sitting in movie theatres seeing this picture have probably first read Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel. In our case one of us read it and one didn’t although we both easily agreed on the rating of the film. However, when you have read the book, the characters are more richly developed in your mind and you can more easily follow the storyline. This was especially true such as in this case when the movie, which was written and directed by Tate Taylor, does closely follow the book. Therefore at times important points were briefly made or alluded to, therefore a tad confusing or requiring the imagination of the viewer or the memory of the person who read the book. The story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi circa 1961 and shows that life for the black housekeeper-nanny-maid-cook employed by the gentry white families was certainly separate and definitely not equal in any way. Aibileen (magnificently played by Viola Davis) is one such person who raised a number of the white children in the families of the people that she worked for as did her mother and grandmother but yet is not allowed to use the same bathroom. Her best friend Minnie (Octavia Spencer) is treated like dirt by Hilly, the lady of her house ( played by Bryce Dallas Howard who must have done a great job because we detested her) . It is Skeeter (Emma Stone ) fresh out of college at Old Miss and a budding journalist who loved her own nanny/housekeeper  who raised her and is now mysteriously out of the house but seen in flashbacks (CicelyTyson). Skeeter ultimately has to convince a group of black housekeepers to tells their story so she can write “ The Help.” Her own mother (Allsion Janny) fills in the details for one of the most moving vignettes that reveals the fate of Skeeter’s black nanny. The movie is true to the book in providing insight into the underbelly of genteel living in the deep south of this past generation. It keeps it alive through the depiction of believable characters involved in complex relationships within the context of the times. It is a film well worth seeing. The acting could not be better and the story will be etched in your mind. (2011)

****

Crazy, Stupid, Love, sp  Dan Fogelman, who wrote Cars and other successful animated movies wrote this well thought out comedy about all too human relationships. He wrote it having  Steve Carell in mind  as Cal , the middle age guy around whom all the actions swirls as his marriage suddenly falls apart. Carell loves the project and decides to produce it with Warner Brothers coming on board to make it a big studio film. The team of Glen Ficarra and John Requa are brought in to direct it. They have been working together since their college days at Pratt in New York City. They have written Bad Santa and  Bad News Bears as well as  recently directing I Love You Phillip Morris with Jim Carrey. After meeting these three talented people at our screening we can see how their chemistry worked for this character driven comedy with a wonderful cast. Ryan Gosling played Jacob, the cool single but obviously complex guy who takes the recently jilted Cal under his wing.  Julianne Moore is Emily, Cal’s wife who is going through what she describes as a mid-life crisis. Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon round out this all star cast with each putting just the right touch on their characters. Special mention should be made about young Jonah Bobo who plays Robbie, the 13 year old son of Cal and Emily whose emotional experience helps all the characters and the audience understand the essence of the movie. The result is not only a funny comedy but a touching story which examines love that  can start as teenagers and sometimes be destined to last a life time with trials and tribulations. It also looks at teenage “love” that may only just feel like love. The story line is close to being brilliant as the characters evolving relationships are charming, touching, surprising and fun to watch as well as being easy to identify with. (2011)

****

The Whistleblower-Sp  This is a documdrama about Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz)  a divorced policewoman from Nebraska who signed up with a company providing contracted services to the United Nations involved with peace keeping and training local police to investigate crimes in Bosnia shortly after the end of the war there. She comes to realize that young girls are being forced into sexual slavery. She discovers much to her disbelief that not only are local police involved by accepting bribes to look the other way while these young women are forced into prostitution but many of them are involved in the abuse of them. She soon further realizes that her fellow police officers of the international force contracted to work in Bosnia.  including the Americans  are deeply involved as are many of the diplomats all of whom have diplomatic immunity. Director  Larysa Kondracki co-wrote this story with Eilis Kirwan. They have been working on this project for 8 years since their Columbia Film School days. An all star cast of Vanessa Redgrave Monica Bellucci and David Strathairn bring top notch acting to this movie. Kondracki and Kirwan  chose to focus their story on the real person  of Boklovac whom they met in Holland where she now lives with her children and  Dutch husband whom she  met in Bosnia. The filmmakers describe how the film is quite accurate and if anything the abuse and maltreatment of the girls is minimized in the film compared to what really happened to them.  They chose to try to tell the story of this whistleblower character played by Weisz and also particularly bring to life one of girls who is an important part of the plot and who dared to speak against her enslavers and dearly paid for doing so.  As you understand how so many people are involved in what is a multi-million dollar or if not billion dollar industry of human trafficking, you realize how much danger Kathery Bolkovac is in. It is at this point in the movie which is not only is a social commentary on an important issue but it is now become an effective  mystery thriller. In the end the viewer cannot help but feel enraged and angry as well as enlightened.. Ms Kondracki shared with us that the office of the United Nations Secretary General is actually trying to decide how they should respond to this film and whether they will support it or speak out against it. This demonstrates how revealing and powerful this movie is as it depicts what was happening 10 years ago in Bosnia and which the filmmakers believe is still a major problem throughout the world. This is not a feel good movie and in fact is quite the opposite. But it is definitely worth seeing. (2011)

****

Mao’s Last Dancer- nf – You get a lot for the price of your ticket in this movie. First there is an insight into the recent history of China where even after the death of Mao, the Chinese government tried to control the minds their people as well as their freedom and spirit. You also get some wonderful pieces of classical ballet choreographed by Australians Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon. But most of all you get the true, very touching story of Li Cunxin based on his autobiography and an excellent screenplay by Jan Sardi. At age 11 he was plucked from his rural cold, snowy school to leave his peasant parents and 5 siblings in order  to live and study full time at a dance academy in Beijing. We follow him through three  actors who play him at various stages in his youth and finally to his portrayal as a young man by Chi Cao who himself is an accomplished dancer. Interestingly, Cao’s real life parents had been teachers of Li Cunxin.  Director Bruce Beresford switching back in forth to various time periods shows the development of this talented evolving dancer. After leaving his family to train  in Beijing, the next big event is as an 18 year old  when he is  invited on a cultural exchange to the Houston Ballet Academy by it’s director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood). There is culture shock as he had been brainwashed to believe that the US was quite the opposite of what he saw and experienced in 1980’s Houston Texas. There is romance, his recognition of his talent and his potential. Then there is  a confrontation with the long arm of China that is pulling him back there. Much of the film is actually shot in China as well as in Houston Texas. The scenes and the people in the rural village appear quite authentic. The story easily evokes tears and yet reminds us of an important lesson that is the theme of the movie and a line in it.,  Before You Can Fly You Have To Be Free .  (2010)

****

The Talk of the Town-nf-  How was the country diverting itself from heart wrenching reports from the battle front of early World War II ? Going to the movies was one way and in 1942 that might mean seeing this movie, which was nominated for 6 Academy awards including Best Picture. Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) is being accused of burning down the town factory when all he did was speak out against the bad conditions there. Professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Coleman), a legal scholar who is destined for the Supreme Court, happens to be in town and is planning to rent Miss Nora Shelley’s (Jean Arthur)  house where Dilg is hiding out after he broke out of jail when he realized he wasn’t going to get a fair trial since the owner of the factory (who it turns out arranged the fire) has turned the local town into a blood thirsty mob out for Dilg. At first it looks like it is going to be light  comedy with hiding, close calls, police and blood hounds almost catching the fugitive and then it seems to be turning into a law and order theme. When Dilg pretends he is Joseph the gardener, he and Lightcap actually get to know each other and really like each other. In  fact, these two men have a strong bonding as did Lightcap and his black man servant (Rex Ingram) who shed a few tears when his boss was going to shave his beard. As touching as this man to man stuff may have been, it is clear that the real romantic feelings are coming from Miss Shelley (attractive loveable wide-eyed Arthur). She   is falling in love but it really isn’t clear which of these leading men it might be with. The finale of the movie while somewhat overly dramatic has s a moving speech by Lightcap (as Coleman really gets into it) and he emotionally reminds everyone about the American form of justice (and without saying it is reminding everyone in the audience about one of the reason that we were fighting the war). There was the final touch where we almost don’t know who Miss Shelley is going to end up with (could this be the first time Cary Grant doesn’t win the girl?) and all ends well.(1942)

****

Bride Flight- rm– The white subtitles, translating Dutch to English, on mostly white background, especially at the beginning of the, film mixed with some  rapid flashbacks to different time periods, also early in the film, were found to be quite bothersome by myself and the  three others with whom I attended this movie . This was especially true as the characters and storyline was being established.  Despite this distraction, as the movie progressed we all found it to be quite engrossing. There was some very rich character development, excellent plot lines and a magnificent beautiful setting in New Zealand. The story begins in post World War II Holland in the 1950s as three young women (Karina Smulders, Anna Drijver and Elise Schaap) are boarding an airplane for New Zealand to join their new husbands and start a new life. One of them is Jewish and the trauma of the holocaust will have a very subtle cast on the film.  On board they also meet Frank (Wakdenar Torenstra ) a young man, somewhat of a free spirit, also seeking a new life as a farmer and ultimately a wine maker who will play prominently in their lives. The story captures the frontier life in New Zealand at this time, the conflicts of religion, passion, friendships and good old fashioned romance. There is also a theme of an important family secret that hovers in the story and should be one that you have seen and thought about in other settings. In alternating time sequences, we get to know these people as their lives progress   to a point 40 or 50 years later. There is a coming together at the conclusion of the film, which is poignant and quite moving. This is the story about these people but the background atmosphere is the post war settlement of this small beautiful land. After seeing this film whenever you enjoy a glass of New Zealand wine you may reflect on this movie and the people whose lives you came to understand

****

This movie is by first time filmmaker Elgin James who, developed it  in a Sundance Workshop and it was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival which isn’t a  slam dunk for films that come up this way. James who wrote and directed movie comes from the streets of Boston and he chose to convey his gritty experiences through the characters of two teenage girls who come from the poverty stricken coastal town of Salton Sea in California and end up with some older boys on the streets of a grimy section of  Los Angeles. The strength of the film is the insight and development of  these two young girls Allison Huffman (Kay Panabaker) and Lily Hobart (Juno Temple) who are portrayed magnificently. Their attachment, dependency on each other and yet their differences unfold before us as they try to escape their environment. The storyline creates tension and anxiety. The three older boys with whom these girls connect David (Chris Coy), Louis (Carlos Pena) and John (Kyle Gallner) are as real as they can be and sadly operate just as you would expect them to. Compared to these five young people, the peripheral characters  are somewhat an enigma to us as their back stories are thin and vague. They do seem authentic and there are excellent performances by Leslie Mann, Kate Bosworth, Neil McDonough and particularly by JR Bourne who does a captivating dramatic role at the conclusion of the movie.  Although the little birds of this story had more reason to fly the coop than the daughters of many who are reading this now, we all know that when any teenager spreads her wings, anything can happen. This movie will be released in September and we will be rooting for it to fly. (2011)