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Our Song – nf – This was an interesting “coming of age” story about three girls living in Brooklyn in difficult circumstances. They belonged to a terrific marching band which held practices which bonded them together and provided some stability in their lives. The dialogue and situations were so real that their confusion, dreams and pain were palpable. 2000

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Paris 36 – sp – They don’t make many musical these days let alone a really good one, but French Director Christophe Barratier has not only done this but has discovered a new singing star/actress, 18 year old Nora Arnezeder . The story takes place in 1936 Paris and appears to reflect the complicated political conflicts of the time as well as the romantic flavor of this setting. While the storyline is one of reopening the music theater in town, the characters do have some depth, making it a worthwhile and enjoyable experience. If you love musicals or if you are any kind of a Francophile you will not want to miss this picture. In French with subtitles. 2008

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Nothing But the Truth – sp – This movie was clearly inspired by the Judith Miller/Valerie Plume story, but is not that story. It was a very well-crafted film about two strong women, one a journalist with a Pulitzer Prize nominated story which happens to “out” a strong and committed C.I.A. agent. The consequences of all this are dire and difficult on both women and their families and the film provokes much thought about “our right to know”, the “right to not reveal sources” and all the unintended consequences therein. Well worth seeing. 2009

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Milk – rm – Extremely well done movie about the gay activist Harvey Milk and his life in San Francisco between 1970 -1978 which tragically ended by an assassination. This is a “Rocky” movie which shows how determined people can make a difference. It is particularly relevant today as gay marriage has been challenged in California and elsewhere. Sean Penn did a magnificent job and is sure to be nominated for many awards. (Addendum- He won Oscar for Best Actor) 2009

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Match Point – nf – We missed this Woody Allan movie and heard some people recommend it so we decided to see it on Netflix. It is set in London or thereabouts and seems to be a parody of a suspenseful drama. There is the conflicted, for the most part unlikeable main character who is a former tennis pro, who connects with the likeable pretty girl next door type except she and her family are very wealthy. There is the other women, sexy moody and ultimately very demanding, played very well by Scarlett Johansson. The script as expected is well written with special moments and prolonged periods of tension. As with all Woody Allan movies, the casting and production is top notch as was his direction. After two hours and four minutes we finally understand the meaning of his match point. We initially concluded this movie was clever but not great. Over the next few days we found ourselves both thinking about the movie and discussing the fine points which in our opinion elevates our final rating. 2005

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Lymelife – sp – This is an Independent film put together by two brothers who grew up in Long Island and wanted to show the nature of relationships between people that they had observed in their youth in the 70s and early 80s. They were able to put together an outstanding cast of Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, Emma Roberts and Culkin brothers Rory and Kiernan. They all turned in extremely fine performances (with a low budget and brief time to shoot) It is directed by Derrick Martini, one of the brothers, who wrote the screenplay. Not surprising he most effectively captured the budding romantic relationship of the young teenagers in the film whom he best understood and this makes the film worth seeing. 2009

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Iron Jawed Angels – nf – Most of us did not learn very much in school about the women’s suffrage movement. This film, which was made in 2004, shows the period 1912 to 1920 and provides a gripping emotional depiction of this piece of history that changed the face of our country. It is the story of a group of young suffragettes led by Alice Paul who is played brilliantly by Hilary Swank and also features Francis O’Connor who is excellent in the part of Lucy Burns as well as roles by Angelica Huston, Lois Smith and Patrick Dempsey. It shows the brave unforgettable actions of these women as they organized and ultimately demonstrated in front of the White House with their banners in all kinds of weather. They were even taken to jail for peaceably protesting for their right to vote and were treated unbelievably badly, essentially as political prisoners on U.S. soil. It clearly demonstrated how President Woodrow Wilson’s own words which decried the lack of democracy in other parts of the world were pointed out as being applicable to most of the United States which was denying women the right to vote and control their own destiny. The team of screenwriters relied mostly on the true story based on books, speeches and newspapers of the time. Katja von Garneir does a wonderful job directing this movie and bringing the characters to life. You can not help but being caught up in the emotion as a new constitutional amendment is finally ratified by the required number of states. 2004

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The Damned United – sp – Imagine a storyline in which Joe Torres iconic manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers steps aside and some younger hot shot guy who did well with a second rate team is given the job. Picture that this new guy thinks he is the greatest and is out to prove that he is even better than Torres whom he dislikes. He doesn’t even feel he needs his beloved assistant manager on whom he was very dependent on his previous teams. Add great action, inside locker room scenes and baseball talk that you really appreciate having grown up as a baseball fan. Now transform the whole story to Great Britain and make it about soccer instead of baseball and you have the essence of this movie. We were very impressed with Michael Sheen whom we met at our film course and who plays Brian Clough, the well-known real life soccer coach, who might be called the tragic figure of this movie. Sheen who played David Frost on the screen and in the theatre in Frost-Nixon described his preparation to inhabit the characters he plays. He takes over the screen and brilliantly conveys the depth of personality and emotion. Although the movie is not just about soccer, there is something lost in the translation to more familiar life situations. We don’t think that the journey taken in this film will be worth the 98 minutes to most people we know. (2009)

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District Nine – rm – If you like alien movies where the alien looks like a 10 foot lumbering ant like object with human qualities, this movie may be for you. It has some familiar themes of a gigantic spacecraft arriving at earth and this time it ends up hovering over Johannesburg South Africa. Over a million refugees from it live in shacks in an area called District Nine and are about to be moved to a more rural area by a non-governmental para- military agency. The main character of the movie is in charge of carrying out this move but he gets accidentally sprayed by an alien chemical, which begins to slowly turn him into an alien. Since the alien’s weapons, most of which have been confiscated can only be fired by the aliens (a bioconnectviity link) and since this man now has an alien arm, he is a rare individual who can fire these weapons. The plot thickens and includes a cute child alien, the wish of the aliens to go home, some battle scenes with conventional and state of the alien weaponry. The special effects are as expected and the movie generates a reasonable amount of suspense. It touches on some issues of discrimination but not in any depth. This is not for everyone. (2009)

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Dear Frankie – nf – This is one of those British films that takes about five minutes for us to get used to the accents and understand what they are saying. Although, it turns out that Frankie one of the main characters in the movie, a charming 9 or 10-year-old boy doesn’t say any words as he is deaf. We learn that this was the result of his father beating him as a small child. Mother and child along with grandmother have kept on the move in Scotland so father will never find them. Mother played by Emily Mortimer has a touching, loving, very close relationship with Frankie and has created a story for him that his father is away at sea. She secretly writes letters to him and intercepts her son’s outgoing mail so she really is also hearing his “voice” about his feeling and observations of life. Frankie although very bright in school is chided by his schoolmates. When the boat on which the father is supposed to be sailing is noted to be coming into port, the mother, who is quite lonely herself decides that she needs to present a man as Frankie’s father for him to briefly meet. She arranges for a stranger, sensitively played by Gerald Butler, to be the father for one day before he goes off to sea again. Needless to say, intertwined with lovely scenes of “father and son” and sometimes mother, especially at the stark but beautiful Scottish seaside, there are some complications. First time director Shona Auerbach has cast her characters very well and captured the emotional relationships between them. The story is somewhat drawn out and simplistic but the acting was excellent. (2004)