White Ribbon, 2009 (Grade A)

Director: Michael Hanake

Awards? Yes Many -- Cannes Palm d'Or, Golden Globe Best Foreign Film, Academy Award nominations
Starring:
Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lard, Burghart Klasnue,  Rainer Bock and many more

sez says: the starkness of the B&W photography is perfect for the unfolding of this riveting mystery: Who did it is asked at the start -- and with out answering that question, it is impossible to talk about the movie.  So read not more if you have not seen the movie--because I am going to give the answer.  The use of children as perpetrators of evil deeds is a well known convention to say the future is in jeopardy   -- and what we know about what would happen when this set of children come of age is well known.  These are Nazi in development. It seems at first they are taking revenge for real wrong (a father's molesting his daughter) --and then they engage in class warfare (harming the Barons son as payback for the death of a farmer's wife) --by then they have a taste for blood and they go after the weakest among them, a retarded boy--possibly to purify their corner of the world.  So the question of the movie has to shift from who did these things to why did they do them.  To answer that question we have the Baroness, who says she is leaving the Baron because she can not stay in a place that exists on and fosters malice, brutality, envy and cruelty.  Indeed, no one should --but the children have no escape and become products of these human attributes--all of which are buttressed by and veiled by strict manners.   This story is quite a ride--and it gives no relief along the way. Grade A

Avatar, 2009 Grade B

Director: James Cameron
Awards: Won Golden Globes and some Academy Awards too for technical stuff. was nominated for many more than it won
Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and more

sez says:  this was fun -- creative -- alive and held our interest for the full 2 hours and 30 minutes. An integrated natural world (good guys) takes on the metal-mechanical-corporate-military world (bad guys) and guess who wins.  Wouldn't we all like to have tentacles that could connect with and commune with trees and all of the living world and also be able to fly on our own personal dragon? No wonder it is a hit. (Grade B)  

 

The Last Station, 2009 (Grade A-)

Director: Michael Hoffman
Awards -- Academy Award nominations for actress, best supporting actor --plus nominated for Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award, plus on list of top 100 films of 2010
Starring: Helen Mirren; Christopher Plummer; James McAvoy; Paul Giamatti; Anne-Marie Duff

sez says --this was a delight to watch. Mirren is seldom disappointing so I am a steady fan of her work --if she's in it, I'll go see it.  But this time she outdid herself.  And the outstanding acting was not all there was too it: the story was poignant.  What is the greater love: that which you have for those in your life who have made you what you are and been made what they are, by a life time spent together (such as a husband and wife of 50 years), or the love you should have for all of humanity through out the ages?  There is the ideal and the real.  And which is which.