****

5 to 7-sp

If you are tuned in to the lingo of certain aspects of French culture, you might know that the title film refers to 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. This is the time in which it is permissible in some marriages for each partner to have an affair. Brian Bloom (Anton Yelchin) is a 24-year-old single struggling writer in New York City who strikes up a conversation on a Manhattan Street with a beautiful French woman Arielle Tierpont (Bérénice Marlohe) who happens to be nine years his senior. She is married with two kids but is perfectly comfortable having an affair with him during these two magic hours of the day. Her husband Valéry Tierpont (Lambert Wilson) is a very handsome likeable guy and is glad to meet Brian who is quite bewildered by this chain of events. This all is not taking place in Paris but in New York City. The screen writer and director Victor Levin seems to know a lot about these things, as well as apparently being in love with New York. From the creative plaques on the benches of Central Park to the lovely Hotel Carlisle where much of the love making takes place, to the magnificent Guggenheim Museum, the mood of the film is clearly established. We come appreciate how this young man is absolutely smitten by the stunning,  and very appealing French woman. He even introduces her to his Jewish parents. His mother (Glen Close) is charmed by this woman no matter what the circumstances, if she loves her son. His father (Frank Langella) is the comic relief to this film as he tries to digest the situation that his son is in. The dialogue of the film mostly New Yorkese with some occasional words of French thrown in with English subtitles  The soundtrack also sets the mood about falling in love perhaps in a lifetime situation. The only flaw we couls find,  is that as charming as young Mr. Bloom may seem to be and as much as we could appreciate his falling head over heels in love, we did not feel the film conveyed to us how this older beautiful woman was developing similar feelings to him. Perhaps Mr. Levin didn’t quite get into the French woman’s shoes. Nevertheless, the film is a moving, exciting, very creative, and a unique love story that is worth seeing (2015)

* * * *
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)