Friday, February 23, 2018

"Darkest Hour," "Call Me By Your Name" and The Week in Reviews

[I review 2018 Best Picture Oscar nominees "Darkest Hour," and "Call Me By Your Name" as well as one of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film - "On Body and Soul."  The Book of the Week is "I Hear She's a Real Bitch."  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Mr. Hulot's Holiday."]




Darkest Hour


As the Nazis close in on British troops at Dunkirk during WW II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill must decide whether to negotiate a peace settlement with Hitler or fight on with the lives of hundreds of thousands of troops hanging in the balance.

"The darkest hour is just before dawn." 

There is no record of Winston Churchill having said that, but he faced his darkest hour right before the Nazis were closing in on over 300,000 British troops who had been driven back to the beaches of Dunkirk and faced certain death with little time to decide what to do.  Churchill had two choices. One, negotiate a peace deal with Hitler which would certainly result in humiliation and sanctions against the British people, or fight on, even though defeat looked imminent.

Well, the British were (and are) a tough lot and Winston Churchill was no exception.  Though he was urged by cabinet members to take a peace deal, Churchill was a fighter.  The film follows Churchill as he struggles with what to do and argues his case to Parliament.

Winston Churchill was an unlikely Prime Minister.  He had a scotch and wine for breakfast and champagne for lunch and dinner and probably several other drinks in between.  He was old, overweight, bombastic and uncouth and smoked cigars constantly.  But he was also eloquent, brave and heroic.  However, Churchill was not a popular choice for Prime Minister.  When his predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, was renounced, Churchill only won the post by default. 

This film highlights a bit of British history that we Americans know little about, but it also highlights why Churchill rose to become a folk hero among the British people and later the world. After asking the Americans to help, Roosevelt declined due to our then very isolationist philosophy, and with his own Cabinet against him, Churchill was very much alone. How does he save the British army from mass slaughter? How does he save Britain from Nazi rule?  Dunkirk looms in the background but in this film we never see any of what is going on over there.  This is all about Churchill and it's all about Gary Oldman playing Churchill. 

Oldman has had a wide ranging career as an actor.  He has played Sid Vicious ("Sid and Nancy" - 1986), an out of control playwright ("Prick Up Your Ears" - 1987), Lee Harvey Oswald  ("JFK" - 1991), a vampire ("Bram Stoker's Dracula" - 1992) and Sirius Brown in the "Harry Potter" series, but this portrayal of Churchill is a true tour de force and caps off a legendary acting career, and there was not a smidgeon of Gary Oldman to be found in this characterization.  He truly embodied Churchill. The rest of the ensemble cast, which included Kristin Scott Thomas as Churchill's wife, Clementine; Lily James as Churchill's secretary (an unnecessary character, in my opinion); Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI; and others are all excellent, but this is Oldman's picture all of the way and this is the role that will win him a Best Actor Academy Award.

Though I must say that the make-up also had a starring role in this film.  The prosthetics were amazing, and though I tried, I could not detect where Gary Oldman left and Winston Churchill began.

This was a riveting drama directed by Joe Wright with a screenplay by Anthony McCarten and it's no easy feat making a dialogue heavy film riveting.  The score by Dario Marianelli was also spot on, tense when it needed to be, dramatic when it needed to be but also silent when it needed to be.

In counterpoint to this film, the film "Dunkirk," which opened earlier this year, tells the other side of the story, what was happening on the beach while Churchill and his cabinet tried to decide how to save all of those troops.  The two together would give you the whole picture and would make an awesome movie binge day.

It is a strange coincidence that two movies so closely aligned in story would be released in the same year but despite the fact that they are both about Dunkirk, each tells the story from a different perspective but each is equally compelling about this incredible bit of English history.

Rosy the Reviewer says...And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to Gary Oldman!





Call Me By Your Name



While staying in Northern Italy with his family in the summer of 1983, 17-year-old Elio bonds with his father's research assistant, Oliver, a much older American, over his emerging sexuality and their mutual Jewish roots.

There was a time when Merchant-Ivory films dominated the market for period pieces and sensitive dramas.  Ishmael Merchant often produced (though he was also a director) and James Ivory directed and they were not only filmmaking partners but partners in real life as well until Merchant passed away in 2005.  Along with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, they won six Academy Awards.  Ivory alone has had four Oscar nominations for his work.

Here Ivory has written the screenplay for this Best Picture nominee (his screenplay is also nominated) based on the novel by Andre Aciman, the story of a young man summering in Northern Italy with his academic American father (Michael Stuhlbarg, who I loved in "The Shape of Water" and who plays a small but pivotal role here) and Italian mother (Amira Casar), who is a translator and has inherited this beautiful house in Italy. 

But seventeen-year-old, Elio (Timothee Chalamet) is bored. It's summer and there's not much to do.  He rides his bicycle into the village, swims in a nearby river with his friends and hangs out with girls, catching a kiss and maybe more when the opportunity presents itself.  He's a typical teenager trying to find himself.

But when Oliver, an attractive and carefree American (Armie Hammer), arrives to stay with the family and work as a research assistant with Elio's father, Elio has to deal with his burgeoning feelings toward Oliver and eventually the two embark on an affair.

I have to say that the acting was excellent (Chalamet and Hammer are both handsome and exciting actors), the cinematography was wonderful and the setting was gorgeous (who doesn't love looking at the beautiful Italian countryside and dreaming about a summer swimming in the river and eating juicy peaches right off of the tree?), but I just could not understand why this film was nominated for Best Picture. And speaking of peaches, there is a scene  involving a peach that made me cringe as I figured out what Elio was going to do with it.  

But why do I question this as a Best Picture nominee? 

Yes, the film was dreamy and arty and evoked a lovely summer love affair, but it was also very slow moving, and I just wasn't sure what the point was.  Yes, it was a coming of age story where a young man was exploring his burgeoning sexuality and yes, it was the 80's where Americans were still very closeted when it came to being gay and yes, it was a lush love story, but the film directed by Luca Guadagnin didn't really develop into anything. Both men bonded over being Jewish, but again, the Jewish experience was only hinted at. Like a summer romance, it happened and then it was over and didn't leave me with much.

Rosy the Reviewer says...this film evoked a sense of time and place, which was enjoyable, but the film as a whole was disappointing.




Streaming on Netflix





On Body and Soul


Endre and Maria both work in an abattoir (that's a nice word for a slaughterhouse) and discover that they are having the same dreams.

This Hungarian film, nominated for this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, begins with a buck and a doe checking each other out in a lovely snowy landscape, but lest we get too comfy, the next shot is of cows awaiting slaughter.  This film will not sit well with vegans.

Meet Endre (Geza Morcsanyi).  He is the chief financial officer of the slaughterhouse and likes to stay in his office.  He's not very social.  Then meet Maria (Alexandra Borbely), who has just been hired to be the quality control inspector.  She, likewise, is not social.  In fact, she is so antisocial that she goes about her job and rarely speaks, but when she does she is abrupt and cold.  She is also socially awkward and doesn't like to be touched. She also has total recall.  When asked by a psychologist when she had her first period, she was able to give her the exact date.  She is also able to remember everything that is said e.g. ask her what the third sentence was in a recent conversation and she can recite it verbatim. Maria is definitely somewhere on the spectrum.

And both Endre and Maria are lonely souls. So it's inevitable that Endre and Maria will meet and the device used to bring them together has a humor to it.  It's the most original "meet cute" I have come across. 

Some mating powder has gone missing and all of the workers at the slaughterhouse are called in to be interviewed by a police psychologist.  She asks them all a series of strange questions, one of which is what their last dream was about (not sure how that is relevant to mating powder getting stolen but what do I know?  I've never worked in a slaughterhouse) and when the psychologist realizes that Endre and Maria are having the same dream - they both dream about that buck and doe, she at first thinks they are pulling a prank and confronts them both together.  In so doing, Endre and Maria realize they are having the same dream which basically breaks the ice between them.  Voila!  Meet cute!

Their awkward attempts at getting to know each other are interspersed with scenes of the buck and the doe with each scene, or dream, showing the relationship between the buck and the doe progressing, and just as the buck and doe are thrown together and seem to like each other, so too are Endre and Maria.  But like the buck and doe who fear hunters, so are Endre and Maria fearful about socialization and taking the risk to love.  However, I would say socialization is hardly as scary as someone trying to shoot you in the wild or slaughter you in a slaughterhouse!

Eventually the two bond over their mutual dreams and want to be in love like the buck and the doe.  Our souls are our true best selves but our bodies often betray us. It's not easy to be our true selves and live out our dreams especially in what can be a brutal real life.  Just ask those cows in the slaughterhouse. 

Written and directed by Lldiko Enyedi, the film bobs back and forth between the tranquil landscape inhabited by the buck and doe and the gruesome reality of animals getting butchered. I get it. If we thought animals had souls, would we still eat them?  However, there was just too much detail about what happens in a slaughterhouse for my liking.  I mean long, lingering shots with the blood dripping down like rain on a roof.

Despite the humor (of the dark variety) and the fine acting by Morcsany and Borbely, the characters were just so stunted and strange that it was difficult to relate to them. This was not one of my favorite foreign films, so probably not voting for this one in my Oscar pool this year. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...if a love story about two socially awkward lost souls with a slaughterhouse as a backdrop interests you, you might like this but I found it disturbing.  I think I will stop eating meat.
(In Hungarian with English subtitles)




***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***




154 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?




Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)


M. Hulot goes to a beach hotel for a vacation and causes his usual clueless havoc.

I didn't like "Playtime," which also featured the M. Hulot character, and I didn't really like this one either, though it was a bit more fun than "Playtime," because I at least got the story.  "Playtime" was more about the set design and color than there being any kind of actual plot. If you can call it a plot, at least this one had more of one.

The film begins on a humorous note with M. Hulot (Jacques Tati) at the train station.  An announcement is broadcast over the loud speakers but the announcement is absolutely unintelligible and people run back and forth to various platforms as the announcement changes and everyone tries to figure out what is being said.  

That was very funny and I could relate, because we actually had that happen to us waiting for the train from Bologna to Venice.  The announcement came on, it was garbled but it was also in Italian and everyone waiting for the same train as we were took off running to another platform.  However, even if we could have understood what the person was saying over all of the static on the loud speaker, we didn't understand Italian, so we didn't know where to run to and missed our train.  Relating to something personally certainly helps humor, so I found that opening scene very funny.  Alas, it all went downhill from there for me because I am not a big fan of slapstick and M. Hulot is all about that.

M. Hulot is a quiet fellow who means well but for some reason wreaks havoc all around him.  But like Chaplin's Little Tramp, Hulot is also all about poking fun at pomposity and the peccadillos of us humans.  Writer, director and star Tati finds humor in the mundane and M. Hulot's humor come from a series of "bits," as in M. Hulot putting on a hat, taking off a hat, then putting it back on again. The humor is in the visuals, one little humorous bit after another as Mr. Hulot enjoys his vacation at the beach.  There is not a lot of conversation or dialogue, but when sound is used, Tati has fun with it like a screen door making a sound like a guitar every time someone passes through.

I give props to films that use visuals rather than dialogue to advance the story because that is what film is all about, and since M. Hulot rarely speaks, this film is all about visuals.  In fact, there was no dialogue whatsoever for the first 11+ minutes of this film and I still knew exactly what was going on.

As I said, there is also not much of a plot. The film is all about disparate French characters on vacation at the seaside and Tati is making fun of what people do and how they act while on holiday.

You see, watching M. Hulot's antics are not really about the plot.  It's about his good-natured self inexplicably messing things up for other people. It's a series of gags that are comments on human nature.  M. Hulot is someone who can't do anything right. He keeps having mishaps - his car breaks down, he sets off fireworks by accident and basically wreaks havoc on everyone around him but is oblivious to the chaos and always lands on his feet. I know M. Hulot is supposed to be a sort of innocent but I actually find him kind of creepy, lurking around, observing people and never saying anything.  If you are familiar with Mr. Bean, it's like that. To me they are two beans in a pod, I mean peas.

As I said, M. Hulot rarely speaks and dialogue is at a minimum. A device used in both this film and "Playtime," and I imagine all of the Hulot films, is that when there is dialogue it is usually not attributed to any one character.  You don't see mouths moving and words coming out.  Rather the dialogue, what there is of it, is more ambient noise off screen and sometimes it's just unintelligible mumbo jumbo.  It's like a silent film but it uses un-attributable dialogue thrown in over the action just to remind us that it's NOT a silent film.  When you hear a voice, the camera does not seek the person speaking, almost as if the dialogue was added after the film was made, much like a soundtrack.

Another device at work is that most of the film is shot in long shots.  There are no close-ups as if we are also on the beach observing everything.

Why it's a Must See: "This enduring classic of French cinema revealed Jacques Tati, in only his second feature as a director, to be one of the medium's most inventive and original stylists."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Tati was nominated for an Academy Award for this screenplay in 1956.

This is not a criticism of French culture, but after watching this film I can't help but feel that the French seem to have a strange sense of humor.  How else do you explain their obsession with Jerry Lewis?  But then critic David Ehrenstein lauds this film as "one of the most original -- and hilarious comedies ever made." So go figure.

Rosy the Reviewer says...there is some charm to this film but it's just not my kind of humor.
(In French with English subtitles)




***Book of the Week***





I Hear She's a Real Bitch by Jen Agg (2017)


Jen Agg is a Toronto restauranteur and owner of The Black Hoof, Cocktail Bar, Rhum Corner, Agrikol and Grey Gardens and she shares her views on opening and running a restaurant, fine dining and being a woman in the sexist restaurant industry.

I credit Anthony Bourdain with my interest in restaurants, food and fine dining.  His first book, "Kitchen Confidential" was a real eye opener and his TV shows since then have spurred me to experiment with my palate. So his recommendation that "Whatever Jen Agg says is worth listening to" was enough to lead me to this book and he was right. This book is a wonderful how-to for anyone opening a bar or restaurant, but it's also an inside look at the restaurant industry, the "bro" culture" within it and a really entertaining and candid memoir. 

Agg knew at an early age that she needed to be her own boss and after paying her dues as a bartender and server, she was able to open her own restaurant.  The restaurant business is one of the most difficult to succeed in and she had her failures but now owns several of the most popular and successful restaurants in Toronto and Montreal.

Here she humorously and candidly shares her story of growing up in Toronto, her sexual experimentation and meeting her husband but this book is all about her views on how to open a restaurant and how it should be run. She also blows the lid off of the "bro" culture, the sexism that exists in the restaurant world and how difficult it is for a woman to break through all of that, even as the owner of the restaurant.

Speaking of how a restaurant should be run, Agg has very strong opinions about restaurant service.

Here are a few of her "Commandments" of Restaurant Service - what she expects from her servers - and once you are aware of these, it will change your dining experience for good or ill:

  • No lifting glasses to pour water.
  • No saying "no problem."  Why would anything be a problem?  Just say 'you're welcome' or 'absolutely' or anything but 'no problem.'
  • No saying 'you guys still workin' on that?' This should be so obvious but I still hear servers say it.  Food isn't work.
  • Always be positive about bar stools.  Like, don't say in an apologetic way, 'sorry, no tables, but I can put you at the bar,' like it's somehow worse.  It isn't. Make it sound like a win. 'Lucky you, I have these lovely bar stools available.'
  • No octopus hands.  Do not grab and carry glasses from the top.  Keep fingers as far away from the rim as possible.  I don't know where yours have been, but I know where mine have been.
And servers shouldn't remove plates until everyone is finished at the table and for you diners: don't stack the plates.  There is a system that the servers follow for clearing your table!

From that you can get a clear idea of Agg's tone and her opinions on how things should be done.  And I agree with her.  After reading those, I dare you to not notice the next time a server breaks one of those "rules."

I also learned what "dropping your food" meant - no, it's not when the server has an accident, it means how the food is delivered to your table.  And salt.  Yes, salt usually makes everything come alive and taste better but she thinks it's overused.  Did you know that some restaurants even salt your dessert?

Agg also has opinions on everything from restaurant critics (a necessary evil) to gin (she hates it) to chefs who yell at their staff (cough, Gordon Ramsay) and for those of you who see yourself opening a restaurant or bar one day, she offers tips on the importance of lighting, great restrooms (she calls them washrooms - remember she's Canadian), bar seats and everything else from walk-in refrigerators to how to handle the clash between the kitchen (back of the house) and the front of the house. 

This is a fun read because Agg has a sense of humor about herself and an interesting story to tell, but it's also an important inside look into the restaurant industry and the sexist "bro" culture that exists and the difficulties that women face in that industry. When a woman has opinions and is running things in that kind of culture, there is a lot of hostility aimed at women and the "B" word gets thrown around. Agg is a feminist but instead of whining about that state of affairs, she re-appropriated the "B" word and formed a one-night conference called Kitchen Bitches where women shared their stories of abuse working in restaurants in hopes to raise awareness.

Anyway, one of the reasons I liked Agg's book so much was the fact that I too have some opinions of my own about restaurants and dining out.  Naturally I wrote about them in a blog post called "My Restaurant Pet Peeves, or How Not To Get the Worst Table in a Restaurant."

When I first moved to Seattle 15 years ago, I was amazed at what a foodie town Seattle was.  Restaurant reviews abounded so I started making an alphabetical list of all of the restaurants I wanted to try (I know, an alphabetical list - but hey, remember?  I'm a librarian) and then slowly made my way down the list. I made it up through "F" and realized many new restaurants with names starting with A-E had opened since I started my "project," so I changed my tactics to listing restaurants by neighborhood and I am still working my way through them all.  If you are ever in Seattle and need a recommendation for a great restaurant, I'm your gal!  

Rosy the Reviewer says... After you read this book, you will never look at restaurants or restaurant service the same way again!  And that's a good thing.  Thanks for the recommendation, Tony!






Thanks for reading!

See you next Friday 

For a 

"Special 2018 Best Picture 
Oscar Recap"



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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.
Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll down below the synopsis and the listings for the director, writer and main stars to where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics" - If I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.










Friday, February 16, 2018

"The Shape of Water" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the movie "The Shape of Water" as well as the DVD "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" and "A Futile and Stupid Gesture," now streaming on Netflix.  The Book of the Week is "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics."  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors"]




The Shape of Water


A strange yet touching love story between a mute woman and an amphibious creature.

I used to go to the movies with my Dad and one of my first movie memories of a horror film was a preview for "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." I was six. My Dad always liked war movies, westerns and romantic comedies, never a horror film, but once in awhile there would be a preview of a horror film, and I vividly remember that one, a huge amphibious creature carrying a helpless woman in his arms.  I am sure there is something Freudian in my early fascination with that film but we won't go there.

However, this film does go there,, but not in a horrifying way. It pays homage to that film but this film is so much more.

It's the 1960's and Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and Zelda (Octavia Spencer) are janitors at a mysterious research laboratory.  Elisa is a mute who lives alone in a shabby apartment over a movie theatre, but her best friend, Giles (Richard Jenkins) lives next door.  He is a fussy graphic artists who likes to spout trivia, who laments the state of the world and keeps his TV tuned to happy sit-coms like "Mr. Ed" and black and white musicals starring Betty Grable.

One day, a secret specimen arrives at the lab.  It's a human-sized amphibious beast (Doug Jones) who looks almost like a man.  His keeper is Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), who is the real beast here, a cruel guy who has it out for our creature and considers him only as "the asset." He carries around a cattle prod and seems to enjoy using it on the creature. When Elisa witnesses the sadistic treatment of the creature, her heart goes out to him and she slowly earns his trust, first by sharing her lunch of boiled eggs, playing music for him, and eventually by creating a way to communicate with him, using her sign language. 

Elisa has a mysterious past that is only hinted at but the two share the fact that they both are different and her recognition of that fact and her compassion draws her to the amphibian.  When the treatment of the creature gets to be too much, Elisa enlists Giles' help to save the creature.  When they manage to escape, Strickland makes it his mission to hunt them all down and kill them.

This film is this year's "La La Land."  Like "La La Land," it's a romantic fantasy - yes, Elisa and the creature have a thing - and it's a film that you will love or hate.  I loved "La La Land" and was shocked when others said they hated it.  I loved this film, too, and will be shocked to hear that anyone would hate it but I am sure some will because it's...um, different.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro who gave us another fantasy, "Pan's Labyrinth" and the less successful "Crimson Peak," this film has garnered 13 Oscar nominations including Best Director for Del Toro, Best Actress for Hawkins and Best Supporting nods for Spencer and Jenkins.  This is the second highest number of nominations for any film (14 is the record - "All About Eve," "Titanic" and "La La Land.")  As we all know, "La La Land" did not win "Best Picture" last year in a stunning faux pas.  This year, I think "Shape of Water" could just do it.

There is a lot going on in this film.

First, it's a romantic fantasy with Elisa falling for the sea creature and I must say, I too, found him curiously attractive.  It's also a sort of musical with a whimsical score and even a song and dance routine.  But there is a deeper undercurrent.

Giles always has his TV on, tuned to black and white musicals and many of the inane TV shows we Baby Boomers grew up with, and Giles' favorite activity is to go eat pie at a very hokey All American diner.  It's all sweet and friendly and apple pie America, until we realize that one of the reasons Giles likes to go to the pie shop is to interact with the handsome soda jerk who shows us just what a jerk he really is when he tells a black couple to get out of his shop and, realizing Giles' crush on him, orders Giles out too.

When the film took that turn, I couldn't help but think of President Trump's campaign slogan - "Make America Great Again." When he was campaigning, I kept wondering what "again" he was talking about, though it seems when people think wistfully about the good old days, they usually think of the 50's and early 60's.  So does that mean that most people want to go back to the time when The Beav and his family ruled the air waves, when Father knew best?  Do they want to relive a time when women knew their place, when there were no civil rights, no sexual revolution, no gender equality, we knew nothing about Viet Nam, we were in the throes of the Cold War, scared of "The Bomb" and gays were closeted?

This romantic fantasy is about those who are different but it also subtly shines a light on the supposed "good old days," another American romantic fantasy.

Hawkins is a marvelous British actress and is deservedly nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance. Without speaking, she expresses a thousand words with her eyes and facial expressions, an ability only the greatest actresses can pull off.  She has been nominated before (she should have been for "Maudie"), but few Americans know who she is.  I hope she is rewarded with an Oscar for her wonderful performance here and that she will become a household name, because she is just a brilliant actress. 

Octavia Spencer came to the fore in "The Help," as the feisty smart-talking no-nonsense Minnie Jackson and she has been playing that character ever since.  It seems like she gets an Oscar nomination every time she does.  I was upset she was nominated once again for playing that character in "Hidden Figures" when Taraji P. Henson did not get a nomination, since I thought Henson was the heart and soul of that film.  But I have to say that Spencer has grown on me and here shows the real depth of her acting skills.  Yes, she is still big on the quips, but she shows a real warmth and depth here that I haven't seen before.

But speaking of depth - Richard Jenkins is amazing and shows his versatility as Giles, the nervous neighbor who is Elisa's loyal friend and a gay man in a world that doesn't know he exists.

Finally, this extraordinary ensemble cast is rounded out by Michael Shannon as Strickland, who seems to embody the American Dream.  He wears a suit, drives a Caddie, lives in suburbia, reads "The Power of Positive Thinking" but he also just so happens to carry around a cattle prod and has kinky sex with his wife. He is a horror version of the American Dream, like a character out of a David Lynch film.  Shannon does evil very well but taking a look at his resume, you realize he can play just about anything.  I also have to give props to Michael Stuhlbarg as Dr. Robert Hoffstetler AKA as "Bob," who is actually a Russian spy who has designs on the creature but who is also sympathetic toward him. 

These fully formed characters are all brought together by Del Toro's vision - the story is his as is the screenplay (with Vanessa Taylor) - and it's a beautiful tale about difference triumphing over a world of conformity and restriction, beauty and kindness transcending cruelty and bigotry.

As I said, this could be a polarizing film like "La La Land." I can understand how you might not have liked "La La Land," if you are not a fan of fantasy and couldn't get past Ryan and Emma breaking into song, but then you would have been shutting yourself off from a film that was an extraordinary homage to movie-making while at the same time reminding us that life isn't like in the movies.  Likewise, here you might have a problem with a young woman falling in love with an amphibian, but if you let that get in your way, you will miss out on a charming uplifting fantasy that has much to say about our lives now.

Rosy the Reviewer says... And the Oscar goes to....




***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD  





The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)



After befriending a strange young man, a successful surgeon's life starts to fall apart and he is presented with a "Sophie's Choice."

Colin Farrell plays Steven Murphy, a heart surgeon, so to make sure we know he is a surgeon we have to endure some heart surgery up close and personal, a movie cliché I can do without. Next we see him meeting a young man in a diner.  They act like they know each other but their relationship is not clear.

Steven is also married to Anna (Nicole Kidman), herself a doctor (an opthalmologist) and they have two children, Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic).  I have to say that Bob as a name for a young boy seems funny to me and speaking of funny, this film is funny and I don't mean in a comic way. I mean in a strange way. Whenever my mother expressed distaste for someone she would say he or she was "funny" as if they were somehow off.  That's how these characters appear.  For example, Steven and Anna have a sexual ritual where he says "General anesthetic?" and she wordlessly disrobes and lies on the bed as if anesthetized while he pleasures himself.  See what I mean?  Kind of funny.

We learn later that the young man is Martin (Barry Keoghan), a sixteen-year-old who seems to have some kind of nefarious hold on Steven. We think this because whenever Steven is with Martin the music is ominous and strident.  Steven invites Martin to his home and everyone talks in a very stilted and inappropriate way such as Bob asking Martin if he has hair under his arms and Kim volunteering that she started her period.  Like I said, funny...but also ominous, like something bad is going to happen.

And it does.

Martin starts stalking Steven and all of a sudden, Steven's family starts to fall ill.  Now the music is really ominous and strident, and this film becomes one of those films where a family is terrorized by someone seeking revenge.  It seems that Martin blames Steven for his father's death and wants to settle the score in a very unique and macabre way.

It took about an hour for this film to get going but once it did it was horrific.

Barry Keoghan, who also starred in "Dunkirk," is a frightening Martin just because he is so flat and emotionless and Farrell is uncharacteristically toned down and less fidgety than usual.

Written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who also wrote and directed "The Lobster," which I loved, I found this film to be less accessible.  "The Lobster" was strange and dark and quirky as is this one, but it seemed to have more heart.  This one is just strange and dark.  It also had a musical score that was very dissonant which makes sense because this film is a sort of horror film but it got on my nerves after awhile.
As for Nicole Kidman, you have to hand it to her.  She is not afraid to take on controversial roles that are not necessarily glamorous ones.  There is a scene where she kisses Martin's feet and that's when this film kind of lost me.  Like I said, these people are funny.  The whole film was kind of funny.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a dark tale about love and sacrifice that seems to say that we only sacrifice when it isn't going to hurt us too much.  And that's not so funny.



Streaming on Netflix






A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018)



A docudrama and biopic about the origins of the National Lampoon and its founder, Doug Kenney.

Straight from the Sundance Film Festival and snapped up by Netflix, this film chronicles the beginnings of the National Lampoon, the humor magazine that dominated the 70's and 80's and highlights the life of Doug Kenney who started the magazine and who also brought us "Animal House," and "Caddyshack."

You have probably heard of the National Lampoon but Doug Kenney is probably not a name you recognize but he was the brains behind the edgy humor that fueled the National Lampoon.  He was also a bit of a jerk.

Narrated by Martin Mull, who plays the older version of Kenney, an interesting device considering how the film ends, the film begins with the young Kenney growing up in white bread America and then attending Harvard where he (Will Forte) meets Henry Beard (an almost unrecognizable Domhnall Gleason, who is everywhere these days), a young man who sports tweeds and pipes, the "oldest guy who was ever a teenager."  The two were both smart ass Harvard guys who were always on, ragging each other and others so they bonded and took over the Harvard Lampoon, the campus humor paper, and together wrote a Tolkien satire, "Bored of the Rings."

Henry was going to go to law school after graduation but the success of the Harvard Lampoon gave Kenney the idea that together they could launch a national humor magazine so Henry forgoes law school and the two approach magazine publishers to no avail until they talk to someone at...wait for it... "Weight Watchers."  You can't make this up, and how appropriate and yes, funny, that an edgy humor magazine would be funded by one of the publishers of "Weight Watchers Magazine."  So funded, the two go about hiring writers and the first was Michael O'Donoghue (Thomas Lennon), who became one of the main writers on SNL and wrote some of the strangest sketches.  If the sketch was very, very dark and very, very out there, it was usually by O'Donoghue.  Kenney and Beard gathered other subversive comedy writers (many who went on to work at SNL) and started putting out edgy satiric commentary like this:

"If Ted Kennedy drove a VW he'd be President now."

And subversive covers. One showed a dog with a gun to its head with the caption: "If you don't buy this magazine, we will kill this dog."

That kind of thing.

The magazine was outrageous and controversial (they were getting sued by everyone) but it took off.

The film is awash in pop culture icons from that era:  Tom Snyder, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, Chevy Chase, John Belushi.  All were involved in the early days of the National Lampoon.

And then Doug came up with the idea for a movie about college and "Animal House" was born, a film starring unknown actors that turned out to be the highest grossing comedy in movie history and then "Caddyshack." Doug was on a roll.

Enter cocaine. In those days, cocaine always seemed to come with success and Doug succumbed to it as well as other excesses.

And as I said, Kenny was a smart ass.  I guess you would have to be to launch a humor magazine and write some of the funniest screenplays ever.  But I am not a big fan of smart asses and guys who are always on and that for me was the problem with this film.  Some of the things he did and said were just cringe worthy. If we are to care about Kenney, he has to come down to earth some time and we have to see the real man behind the wisecracks and the bravado, but he never does and we never do.  He is a total goof off and not a very nice guy.  He was a womanizer, a cheater and not a very loyal friend and he eventually went over the edge literally with his excessive lifestyle and when he did, I just didn't really care.

Written by Michael Colton, John Aboud (based on the book by Josh Karp) and directed by David Wain, the film boasts an all star cast and is a reminder that the great comedians and comedy writers of our time were often the most messed up.  Comedy is serious business. But the film tried to do too much and ultimately felt like a superficial run down of Kenney's life and lacked real heart.  Doug Kenny as portrayed by Will Forte is a guy who is really, really hard to like or relate to and Forte's wigs were awful.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I know Kenney influenced magazine, movie and TV history but I found his portrayal in this film to be so obnoxious that I just didn't care about him or the film.




***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***




155 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?


Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)



A Carpathan folk legend about Ivan and Marichka, two young lovers from feuding families, who fall in love, and but then Marichka dies, and we are left with the tragic dirge of a life that follows for Ivan.

Set in the 19th century Carpathian mountains in the Ukraine, this films uses a series of vignettes to tell the story of Ivan (Ivan Mykolaichuk), who meets Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova) and falls in love with her. However, she is the daughter of man who killed Ivan's father, which doesn't go over very well, but they marry anyway.  Then Marichka gets pregnant. Then she dies.  Then Ivan falls in love again.  Then he is betrayed and things don't end well for our Ivan. That's basically it and it's all very grim. But while this is all happening, there is crop harvesting, horse-showing, bread making, dancing and singing. It's a celebration of Ukrainian folk life so it's almost a documentary except for the occasional death by drowning and a bit of cheating.

Directed by Sergei Parajanov from the novel by Mikhaylo Kotsyubinsky (adapted by Ivan Chendej), the film goes back and forth between color and black and white and I never figured out why. It's also all very folkish and folk songy and takes forever to get to the point.  Very arty and very boring, and the strident score for this film is the one of the most annoying I have ever heard.

So why was I supposed to see this?

Why it's a Must See:  "[The director's] merging of myth, history, poetry, ethnography, dance, and ritual is one of the supreme works of the Soviet sound cinema..."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like Russian folk music or you enjoy watching crop harvesting and horse shoeing, you might like this but for me, zzzzzzzzz.




***Book of the Week***




Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book by Dan Harris (2017)



Dan Harris wants us to be happier...and he thinks meditation is the key.

Harris is a recognizable correspondent for ABC News and a regular Weekend news anchor.  He is also the author of "10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story." What you may not know is that Harris famously had a panic attack live on air which led him to some major soul searching and that first book.  

So how do you get 10% happier?

Well, one way, according to Harris, is to make meditation a regular part of your life.  Like most converts, Harris is a zealot for meditation.  He and his co-author even went on tour by bus to get the word out.  Before that famous panic attack, he was a self-described a**hole who was consumed by work and the path to success, and he wants the world to know that he at least now knows he was an a**hole.

So this book is an accessible and self-deprecating tale of Harris's journey to meditation and its benefits.  His mantra now is, if he can do it, you can do it.

Likewise, if I can do it, you can do it.

Yes, I am also a believer. 

I have been following the Oprah/Deepak school of meditation and wrote about how it has helped me in my blog post "A Little Meditation on a Little Meditation by an Unlikely Meditator" which I wrote back in 2014.  So I am not a skeptic and not necessarily fidgety, but I was drawn to this book to give me some pointers because I am always interested in the insight of others.

Whenever I tell someone I am into meditation, the first thing that person says is, "Oh, I could never shut off my mind" or "I could never sit still that long" or "I don't have time" or "If I go into my mind like that, the devil might get inside me."

And that's the point of this book - to clear up those misconceptions and show you how easy it is to take a break from all of those thoughts in your head and get some clarity.

I know this is difficult to believe, but you are not your thoughts.  Thoughts are just thoughts and you get a better understanding of that when you start practicing meditation.

There are many ways to meditate, but this book is all about "mindfulness meditation," which is derived from Buddhism but does not require adopting a belief system or declaring yourself to be a Buddhist.  This is just a "simple, secular exercise for the brain," that promotes calm, focus and mindfulness.  You can do it for 30 minutes, 10 minutes, or even just one minute.

Here are some tips for the beginner:

  • Approach the establishing of a meditation habit an an experiment.  You're not making a lifetime commitment.
  • Be willing to fail. Know that it's part of the process.
  • Start small.  Don't take on too much too soon.  One minute counts!
  • Try attaching mediation to a pre-existing habit (For example, 'After I shower or run, or have my morning coffee, I meditate for a minute)'
  • Stay on the lookout for the life benefits. Let them pull you forward.


Harris ends the book with this:

"Meditation...is a kind of disembedding from the various trances...in which we live our lives...But it is possible to burst your own bubble of self-absorption...what comes forward is greater attunement to other people...and also closer connection to life's fundamental mysteries.  You shift from being stuck in the content of your thoughts to being amazed that you are thinking in the first place...[you] undestand the sacred fact that you're alive."

Rosy the Reviewer says...this book is a down-to-earth, easy to understand primer on meditation that will help you find the road to happiness.



Thanks for reading!
 
See you next Friday 


for my reviews of the Oscar Nominated films


"The Darkest Hour"

 and

"Call Me By Your Name"

as well as
  
The Week in Reviews
(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)


 and the latest on

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 
  
I Die Project." 


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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.
 
Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

 
Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll down below the synopsis and the listings for the director, writer and main stars to where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics" - If I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.