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Rails & Ties – nf – You take two great actors and provide an unusual painful but simple story and the result is a touching but difficult movie to watch. A women suicides by planting her car on the tracks in front a speeding railroad train. Her 11-year-old son ( Miles Heizer) barely escapes from the car. The train engineer (Kevin Bacon) and his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) who just found out that she has metastatic cancer take in the young boy into their childless home. They both bond with him and for a moment in time, some good has come from all this tragedy. Not bad for the directing debut of Allison Eastwood who is the daughter of Clint. (2007)

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Middle of Nowhere – sp – This is a story about teenagers living in a small town who feel rejected by their parents for various reasons but are trying to figure out how to do something with their lives. This leads the two main characters to take up selling pot to make money in order to break free and become their own persons. The script was written by Michelle Morgan who grew up in Thousand Oaks in the San Fernando Valley in California but we suspect after meeting both of them at our film course, that many of the fine touches of this movie were added by Director John Stockwell. In any case, the result is a sensitive reading of young people which captures very well some of the struggles of this time of life. Susan Sarandon is, as usual, quite outstanding as the mother of the main character who is portrayed very well by her real life daughter Eva Amurri. Anton Yelchin portrays the 17 year old main male character and has a very moving scene in which he has tracked down his mother who abandoned him when she was 15 years old and tells him now that she feels no connection to him. (2009)

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An Unlikely Weapon – sp – This is a an outstanding documentary about Eddie Adams the photographer who in 1968 photographed a Saigon police chief shooting a Vietcong guerilla point black Some say that photo ended the Vietnam War by it’s influence on the US public.This film shows how Adams, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the picture, never really understood why it was so great and but was profoundly effected by the incident for much of his life. He strove for perfection throughout his career and never believed he came close, despite continually trying He was a complex but an immensely likeable person. He felt his greatest accomplishments were when he returned to Viet Nam and joined the rejected boat people on what seemed to be a hopeless journey. He took pictures of them which probably influenced President Carter and the US Congress to let a couple hundred thousands of these Vietnamese refugees into the US and become part of the next generation of immigrants. When he moved on to subjects beyond the war he related well to them whether they be Fidel Castro, the Pope, or movie stars, which is why they allowed him to capture such unique photos of these well known subjects . You may have to search out this film or wait until it comes on DVD since it is going to have an uphill battle to get good distribution. If you are inclined to see this picture you will not be disappointed. We had the opportunity to hear a discussion of this film not only with Susan Morgan Cooper the Director/Producer but also with Pulitzer winning photographers David Hume Kennerly and Nick Ut (who took the also unforgettable photo of the Vietnamese girl running down the street after a Napalm bombing) Both were in Viet Nam with Adams and confirmed the authenticity of the film and of the subject himself. (2009)

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North Face – sp – If you are at all interested in mountain climbing – dangerous mountain climbing, or if you think you might want to learn more about risk taking mountain climbing this movie is for you. This is an award winning German film with English subtitles, set in Germany in 1936. The government has encouraged German mountain climbers to show the world how brave and strong they are by climbing this most difficult mountain. The chilling (and we do mean ice cold and freezing) attempt to do this feat is the main plot of this film. It is based on a true story. Most of it, including all the life and death parts of the movie, are based on known facts of an actual occurrence. One of the guests at our film course was a young alpine mountain climber who not only had heard of the actual events shown but verified that all the situations on the mountain , pitfalls and climbing techniques with pitons and ropes etc were quite authentic. This was a period piece nicely depicting the lavish hotel setting at the base of the mountain. However, most of the two hours and one minute of this film take place in the outside bitter cold. We also learned that this movie is in the tradition of some great German mountain climbing movies which we haven’t seen. While we were caught up with the suspense and adventure, we did feel there was too much time up there in the mountain with snow continually falling or alternating between flakes to avalanches. The movie was very skillfully done. The story line was interesting and painful, but wasn’t complex and stimulating enough for all we had to bear in watching it. (2010)

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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 Closet – nf – A middle aged accountant is about to be fired from his job, people at work think he is a nerd, his teenage son living with his ex-wife thinks he is a bore which leaves our main character about to end it all by jumping off his apartment balcony. A new neighbor who is an older gay man convinces him that he can save his job by spreading a rumor with some doctored photographs that show he is homosexual. This premise changes everything! Suddenly he is considered an intriguing person and the boss doesn’t want to fire him since it wouldn’t look good if he fired a gay man. The plot moves from here with all sorts of comedic developments with co-workers, women and even his son which also is a clear commentary on society’s attitudes about this situation. The film was released in 2000 and the point which it is making is somehow not quite as relevant as it was nearly a decade ago. It is in French with subtitles and has excellent acting. However we don’t think it makes our “must see” list which reminds us how much we liked the French films Tell No One (a mystery) and Paris 36 (a delightful musical comedy) 2000

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – nf – What was an extraordinary book of the thoughts, fantasies and memories of a man who had been an editor at “Elle” magazine who then suffered from a stroke and “locked in syndrome”, is a creative film which ended up being a bit long and arduous. That it was produced at all, given the nature of the story, was quite a marvel. However, it lacked the overwhelming emotion of the book. 2007

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The Fog of War – nf  – We had always wanted to see this 2003 Documentary about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. It won an Oscar and is directed by Errol Morris who used a special technique (Michael learned about it during a documentary about documentaries) where McNamara talks to the interviewer while looking at a monitor directly under the camera that is filming him so he speaks directly into the camera. McNamara was 85 at the time of the filming and is intent on giving the story of lessons learned through his experience with the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Viet Nam War (about which we were most curious) as well as during his time as head of Ford and later the World Bank. The film was interesting, held our attention, made McNamara more likeable than we expected and showed him acknowledging he made mistakes. However at the conclusion we still didn’t really understand exactly where he felt he went wrong in Viet Nam or where he substantially disagreed with Lyndon Johnson. Political junkies will want to see this especially if you lived through this period of time. 2003

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The Last Kiss – nf – This is a movie that tries to examine the nature of love as well as marital and impending marital relationships in young people close to turning 30. The main focus is a couple confronting parenthood and the need to get married. Michael (played by Zach Braff who is a perfect younger Ray Romano look alike) realizes he is frightened about his future prospects with Jenna his lovely girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett)of three years who is now pregnant. He allows himself to get drawn into a brief affair with younger very tempting college student. His close buddies are dealing with their own variations of the relationship theme. One can’t get over a breakup, another married guy with small child ( played by Casey Affleck) walks out on his wife and still another can’t figure out what to do even though he is successful in seducing women. At the same time Jenna’s parents (played very well by Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson) are examining their 30 year marriage. All the main characters ultimately confront their vulnerabilities, are insightful and try to be honest with their partners and themselves. That is the strength and the somewhat refreshing component of the film. However, the movie is a cliché. The storyline is shallow and old hat. The comedy component is average TV sitcom material. We liked the characters but weren’t moved by them. It probably isn’t worth your time unless perhaps you are under 30. 2006

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Towelhead – nf – This is a very effective and sensitive film about the sexual awakening of Jasira, a 13 year Arab-American girl, played very well by Summer Bishil. The setting is Houston, Texas in 1990-91 during the first Gulf War where Jasira has just moved in with her divorced father. The movie as the title suggests is also about racism as we see the thinking and interactions of the main characters. They are her father, an overbearing Arab American proud of his Lebanese background but with little sensitivity or understanding of his daughter, an unhappily married next door neighbor army reservist who is acting out his attraction to Jasira, Thomas the new black high school boyfriend of Jasira who is also ready to act out his attraction and feelings towards Jasira despite the rejection by her father and finally the other couple on the block, which includes a pregnant women, who are more empathic towards Jasira and are trying to protect her. The movie is based on a novel by Alicia Erian with the screenplay and the direction by Alan Ball . There are several well done painful moments in the film .While the storyline may not be universal, it will not be hard to appreciate the struggle of this young women as she encounters her desires and certain realities of life. If you view it now, most of you will probably be seeing this movie on Netflix where you will have the opportunity to view two long drawn out panel discussions led by Director Alan Ball about the use of the title which is a serious racist slur. The points made are quite worthwhile and can be summarized in the first six or eight minutes of the first discussion which also include some interesting comments by Summer Bishil. 2007