An Education, 2008 (Grade C-)

Director:  Lone Scherfig
Awards?  nominated for Academy Awards Best Picture and Best Actress--didn't win
Starring:  Carey Mulligan; Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Roasmund Pike, Emma Thompson. Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams, Matthew Bird. Sally Hawkins, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes, Ellie Kendrick

sez says: what a disappointment--I have no idea why this was nominated for any awards. I guess you can say it is well made (as most films are), and it is well acted (not better or worse than most movies these days) and --you can also say, it is not very interesting.  In fact, I found it problematic.  It is about a little girl/young woman who is seduced by a cad. (She is 16, turning 17.  Yes she is post-pubescent but she is only 16 when most of this takes place.) While she is bright and pretty she is still legally and ethically a child.  So no matter how much she may look like a woman when she is all dressed-up, let's not kid ourselves she is just a kid.  In this story she is introduced to a world that is much more interesting than her prep-school and the control of her overbearing father.  The aforementioned cad romances her with a fairytale life. Eventually he is revealed to be false and she realizes she really ought to go to college (Oxford, no less).  The end.  That is suppose to be interesting?  Not so much, if you ask me. And stories that contain titillation based on the deflowering of a 17 year by 'an older man' are suspect in my book.  (Grade C-)

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. 

Crazy Heart, 2009

Director: Scott Cooper
Awards --Bridges is nominated for best actor--time will tell if he wins 
Starring:  Jeff Bridges; Maggie Gyllenhaal; Robert Duvall; Colin Farrell

sez says--well this is about the 100th remake of this story... poor old talented fella is a boozer--his talent stays in tack but his life is a wreck. Then a pretty young woman falls in love with him and he has incentive to turn his life around--but only after a serious betrayal of her trust...etc .. ect .. Why would any beautiful young woman be interested in a falling apart old drunk man, even if he writes great songs? Ya just gotta wonder about the fantasy life if some old men.  And, certainly Bridges has taken this old horse and gotten it up on its feet with a fine acting job--and he is surrounded with other strong actors..and the landscape is very pretty..and the photography is well done --esp all the close ups  But I've seen this story too many times  GRADE C+

ADIEU MÈRES / GOODBYE MOTHERS, 2007

Director: Mohamed Ismail
Starring:
From MORROCCO

sez says: what an important story to tell. The Jews of Morocco, some of whom had lived in that country for generations, left in mass, for Israel, after WW2.   The sadness, and the loss of this exodus is well presented.  It is not suggested that Morocco was a perfect place to live, the economy was not strong, there was some tension between the Jews and Arabs--the flames of which were fanned by both sides.  But there were other close relations between Jews and Arabs--there was the growing hope of an upcoming generation that could put divisions aside, and it was true home to the Jewish community and people had strong ties to each other. Their leaving caused a separation that ripped into the fabric of this society and cause billows of hurt and sorrow. This is a film to see and one that is likely to make you want to know more about this piece of history, esp given the problems the world has seen following the establishment of Israel. GRADE B

SEX, OKRA AND SALTED BUTTER, 2008

Director: Mahamat-Saleh HarounStarring:  to fill is
From: France / Chad

sez says: this was a delightful story about an immigrant family. Malik, the traditional family patriarch and now expatriate living in France is lost when his younger wife, Hortense, leaves him --and their two young children--to go off with a man she has fallen in love with, and with whom she has a fabulous sex life.  Back home Malik hasn't a clue how to run the house, and he seems not to realize the woman down the hall, Mrs M..., has an active fantasy life about him.  He turns for help to his older son -- whom he discovers is gay.  Meanwhile his gay son brings a lost, homeless waif of a woman home for dad to shelter then discovers she is pregnant and the baby's father is AWOL.   This sweet comedy slips and slides along with plenty of giggles and smiles.  What I loved best is that there was not a single bad person in the story.  There were plenty of tangles and misunderstandings and  silly behaviors --but everyone was just trying to make their way in the world. Good solid acting too.  While it does not qualify as a fabulous film it is a well done pleasure and certainly worth seeing.   GRADE B-