Showing posts with label Documentaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Documentaries. Show all posts

Friday, December 29, 2017

Rosy the Reviewer's One Liners: One Line Reviews for Busy Folks Who Just Want to Netflix and Chill!

It's that time of year: the middle of the Holiday Season where there is too much to do and too little time to do it in. 

And Rosy the Reviewer is also busy, busy, busy, so I am making it easy on all of us by giving you some movie reviews that are short and sweet.  Short?  One line.  Sweet?  Not all of them.  

The shows are all streaming on Netflix so you can just Netflix and chill and enjoy the rest of the holiday season!

And I mean actually sit and watch Netflix and chill...not that other thing.


Enjoy...and you can thank me later.



Streaming on Netflix






Jerry Before Seinfeld (2017)



Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are a Jerry fan or really loved the TV show "Seinfeld," then you will enjoy this very funny yet poignant documentary where Jerry returns to the Comic Strip Club where he got his start; he does some stand up interspersed with reminiscences about his childhood and who he was before he was "Seinfeld."







Blue Jay (2016)





Rosy the Reviewer says...two high school sweethearts meet up 20 years later in this black and white (why?) very talkie two-hander romantic story (think a less successful "Before Sunrise" but still worth seeing) starring Sarah Paulson, who is an amazingly real actress and proves she can play someone other than a tough Marcia Clark ("American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson") or a weird character in "American Horror Story" and writer/actor Mark Duplass, who I really liked in "The One I Love," but not so much in this.








The Watcher (2016)



Rosy the Reviewer says...this is one of those horror films about an unsuspecting couple who buy their dream home only to discover that some bad stuff happened in that house, and some bad stuff is going to happen to them too, but it's only Lifetime Movie kind of bad, and really over-the-top and campy bad, and actually so over-the-top and campy bad that it's on my list of possible camp classics which translates to lots of fun.







The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)



Rosy the Reviewer says...a fascinating documentary using never-before-seen footage and interviews that investigates the mysterious death of Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender activist and veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City, which was one of the most important events leading to the Gay Liberation Movement.




Big Family Cooking Showdown (2017)



Rosy the Reviewer says...if you loved "The Great British Baking Show" on PBS or, as it's known in the U.K, "The Great British Bake Off," you will love this new series that features sixteen British family teams who fight for the title Best Family of Cooks in this series presented by Zoe Ball and Nadiya Hussain (Hussain won "The Great British Bake-Off" in 2015).




And don't forget, "The Crown" which is now back for it's second season!



Thanks for Reading!

I hope you had a lovely holiday and continue to enjoy the holiday season. 

I wish you all a Happy New Year,

and I hope I will see you next year!

NOTE:

There will be a special
New Year's edition of
Rosy the Reviewer this coming Tuesday

"My Mother's Diary
(and a Meaningful New Year's Resolution for you to consider)"

 

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to copy and paste or click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer

 
Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

Friday, December 8, 2017

"Wonder" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the movie "Wonder" as well as the DVD "The Dinner" and the documentary "Elaine Stritch - Shoot Me" now streaming on Netflix.  The Book of the Week is my new favorite cookbook - "Dinner: Changing the Game."  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with Russ Meyer's cult classic "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!]




Wonder


Based on the best-selling book, this film tells the story of young Auggie Pullman who was born with facial differences and who, after being home-schooled for the last five years, begins fifth grade at a mainstream school for the first time.

Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) is a young boy living in Manhattan with his parents, Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate (Owen Wilson), his sister, Via (Isabela Vidovic) and his dog.  He has been homeschooled by his mother for the last five years because he was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a facial disfigurement that has caused him to have many surgeries over the years which created their own facial differences. When going out, Auggie wears an astronaut's helmet so he doesn't have to endure stares from both kids and adults.  Fearing that he would be bullied at a public school, his parents had decided to home school Auggie, and Isabel had given up her career to teach Auggie, but now, as the film begins, they have decided it's time for Auggie to attend a regular school.

When Auggie arrives at school, the principal, Mr. Tushman, played by a warm and believable Mandy Patinkin, arranges for Auggie to have a tour of the school by Julian (Bryce Gheisar), Jack Will (Noah Jupe) and Charlotte (Elle McKinnon), and despite Julian's rather rude questions to Auggie, the tour goes well, but as these things go, later Julian becomes Auggie's biggest antagonist. Actually, that's a nice way of putting it.  Julian is actually a bully and he and his bully friends make Auggie's introduction to a real school a real nightmare.

Auggie has facial differences but other than that he is a regular kid who loves "Star Wars," video games and science, so despite the bullying that he endures, he makes friends with Jack Will and a little girl named Summer (Millie Davis) and, with courage, a sense of humor and a sweet personality, he eventually overcomes what is thrown at him and comes to terms with school.

Meanwhile, Auggie's sister, Via, has issues of her own.  She loves Auggie, but it's not easy having a brother who gets all of the attention.  She's a good kid but we are reminded that everyone has their own issues, some of which may not be apparent from the outside.  When Via returns to school after summer break, her best friend, Miranda (Danielle Rose Russell), ignores her, preferring to hang with a cooler crowd, and since Auggie and his issues seem to take up all of the oxygen, Via doesn't share her problems with her parents.

The film takes a tangent from time to time to show the viewpoint of some of the other characters. We see that everyone, even those without a disability or physical differences, is fighting some kind of battle.  Sound familiar?

Yes, that is the main message here.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

Whenever the subject matter of a movie involves a disabled child, or in this case, a child with a facial disfigurement, it's very easy to fall into sentimental clichés meant to manipulate the heartstrings so I have good news and bad news. 

Which do you want first?


I actually liked this movie so let's get the bad news out of the way first.


  • I could have done without the whole side plot about Miranda and the reason why she stopped being friends with Via.  Totally far-fetched.

  • Owen Wilson's nose.  It's not really his fault but there was an SNL sketch once about how Owen Wilson's nose looks like a penis, and at a certain angle, it totally does, so now whenever I look at him I can't stop thinking about that.  So even though he does a credible job as Auggie's father, I couldn't take my eyes off of his nose.  But he also didn't really have that much to do in the film, either, except throw out the occasional bon mot or some incredibly wise advice for Auggie.


  • The story was told from a couple of different viewpoints - Via's, Miranda's, Jack Will's - but the film was not consistent in using that device and because of that, the device was jarring and distracting. If the writers were going to use that as a way to show that everyone is fighting some kind of battle, then I would have liked to have seen it carried out throughout the film with other characters such as Isabel and Nate. 

  • It all wrapped up just a bit too neatly. I'm not a huge fan of stories where everything turns out perfectly and the bullies change into good people, not because that's not a good message, but just because I don't believe it really happens in real life.  Bullies tend to stay bullies.


OK, that bit's over.  Let's get to the good news.

  • This is a good film that actually did manage to avoid the sappy sentimentality and emotional manipulation that usually accompanies movies about children with differences.

  • Julia Roberts.  That's all I need to say.

  • Though Tremblay and Roberts were fantastic and the rest of the cast were also excellent, that was kind of expected when you examine the pedigrees of most of these actors.  But the wonder here was young Isabela Vidovic, not just because she was a poignant and luminous presence, but because the story actually ventured to the issue of how siblings might view a brother or sister who gets all of the attention because of a disability. Yes, they feel love and compassion for their brother or sister, but there is also the accompanying hurt and neglect they feel when the sibling seemingly gets all of the love and attention which then leads to guilt for feeling that way.  The film did a very good job of showing that side and Vidovic was one of the reasons it worked so well.

  • The message:  Choose kindness.  You can't argue with that.


Directed by Steven Chbosky with an adapted screenplay by Chbosky, Steven Conrad and Jack Thorne based on the book by R.J. Palacio, this is a good movie - not a great one - but a heartwarming family film with a good message, though it's a sad commentary that we humans need to be reminded to be kind.

Rosy the Reviewer says...should be part of school curriculum.  Oh, it already is.  Good.





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

On DVD and Streaming






The Dinner (2017)



Two sets of parents get together to discuss a crime their sons have committed.

Paul (Steve Coogan) and Stan (Richard Gere) Lohman are brothers and their sons have gotten into trouble. Not just a tiny bit of trouble, either.  Some big bit of trouble that was all caught on video camera so Paul and Stan and their wives, Claire (Laura Linney) and Katelyn (Rebecca Hall), meet to try to figure out what to do about it before what the boys did is discovered.

They meet in a fancy exclusive restaurant that is difficult to get into.  Stan, a Congressman is running for Governor and is the more successful brother.  Because of that, he was able to get them into this exclusive restaurant and makes sure everyone knows it. That establishes the brothers' relationship early on. Stan is the more successful brother and Paul is very resentful of that.  But ironically Paul is happier in his marriage to Claire.  Stan is more interested in his career than his wife.  Paul is a teacher in a public school and he has always felt less than around Stan, but he also thinks that Stan is elitist and self-serving. Paul is a troubled man on the verge of mental illness. None of that is a good menu for a nice meal.  In fact, it all devolves into a dinner from hell.

Speaking of which, like a nice, or should I say, extravagant, meal, the film is divided into courses: Aperitif, Appetizer, Main Course, Cheese Course, Dessert and Digestif (like I said, this is a fancy restaurant), and through a series of flashbacks, we see how the relationships among the four have unfolded over the years; we see the crime that their sons have committed; and the simmering resentments that have piled up which keeps them all from taking responsibility for their sons or their own lives.

How far out of the range of morality will people go to protect their loved ones?

Richard Gere has always been a good actor.  I remember his first big role in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar."  OK, he wasn't just a good actor, he was also a hottie but now he has matured into one of our venerable actors.  That's what you get called when you can't play romantic leads anymore though he is aging nicely and certainly still could.  Men seem to get away with the romantic lead roles long after we women have aged out of them. But I don't think Gere wants to go that route anymore, and he is playing it right.  He is choosing age appropriate roles he can sink his teeth into and this film is a good example.

But Coogan, who in the past has been more identified with comedies, is the real star here as the jealous, sarcastic and dark brother who through the course of the film has a breakdown.

However, despite an interesting premise (which very much reminded me of the play "God of Carnage" and its subsequent movie version "Carnage"), excellent performances by seasoned actors and a good first half, the film, written and directed by Oren Moverman (based on the novel by Herman Koch), this is yet another American remake of a film that has already had Dutch and Italian versions, and sadly, it falls apart by the time the cheese course arrives. The film just goes on too long, and I wanted that dinner to end.

Rosy the Reviewer says...many revelations unfold throughout the course of the meal but unfortunately, by the time they got to the cheese course, I didn't care anymore.


Streaming on Netflix



Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (2013)



A documentary on the life and times of Elaine Stritch, a true Broadway Baby.

Elaine Stritch is one of those actresses that you recognize but probably don't know her name.  But she was a Broadway icon, a New York City institution, who died in 2014 at the age of 89.

This film captures the last year of her life and is pure cinema verite with the camera following her around as she prepares for her upcoming one woman show and continues to work on the TV show "30 Rock."  The film is also interspersed with her TV, Broadway and movie performances over the years.

Stritch was one of those tough cookies who not only didn't mind being called a broad but actually called herself that.  She never made the transition from Broadway to the movies in a big way, though she did star in some films playing the wise-cracking friend, and she had a successful TV career culminating in her role on "30 Rock."

She of the smoky voice was a belter. She was also known as a scene stealer and her signature performance was Stephen Sondheim's "The Ladies who Lunch" in "Company" for which she was nominated for a Tony.




She also often forgot lyrics, especially when singing Sondheim, because as we all know, his songs were wonderful but wordy, but, in true "The show must go on fashion, she would carry on. 

Sondheim famously sent her a telegram that said: 

"I won't be there so feel free to make up your own lyrics!"

Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Hal Prince and others comment on Stritch's show- biz influence and it was substantial.

Stritch was a recovering alcoholic, sober for 25 years but once she hit her 80's felt it was OK to have one drink a day.  She was married once but her husband died of brain cancer and she never found love again.

The last year of her life, she wanted out of New York City after having lived there almost 70 years to which her nephew humorously observed, "You can't say you didn't give it a chance."

Born in Detroit, she maintained a home in the Detroit suburbs and that's where she died on July 17, 2014.  A year before she died she felt her time had come and she said, "It's gettin' there.  I hope I can at least be amusing about it."

I have always been a huge admirer of Stritch.  In fact, I love her!  And this documentary captures her perfectly.  She was at that age where you don't give a damn anymore and say what you think.  I'm almost at that point myself.

Sondheim's song "I'm Still Here" was also a signature song of Stritch's and pretty much sums up this remarkable woman's life.





Rosy the Reviewer says...if you love New York, if you love Broadway, this is not to be missed. An amazing journey with an amazing broad. 






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



163 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?




Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1963)

Three busty go-go dancers kill a guy, take his Gidget-like girlfriend hostage and plan to rob an old man and his mentally challenged son who live on an isolated ranch in the desert.  However, turns out these three don't know what they are getting themselves into.

And that's about it.

Except the getting there defies description.

Director Russ Meyer was known for his campy sexploitation films that featured big-breasted women and dialogue with lots of sexual double entendres.  He was also a fixture on late night TV in the 60's and 70's with his thin mustache and conversation rife with sexual innuendo.

Varla (Tura Satana), Rosie (Haji) and Billie (Lori Williams) are go-go girls who have to endure the leers and jeers of their male audience yelling at them to go faster and faster as they gyrate.  That would make any girl mean and these girls are mean.  Varla is the leader and is adept at karate. She is so adept at karate that she can break bones with her bare hands and they does. The girls also like to race their cars in the desert. 

As they are racing around the desert in their souped-up sports cars, and for some reason, laughing maniacally as they do that, an unsuspecting couple come upon the ladies and the guy makes Varla mad.  Must have been those black socks he was wearing with his white sneakers and Bermuda shorts.  Not a good look and not a good idea to make Varla mad.  She breaks his back with her bare hands and the three take his girlfriend, Linda (Susan Bernard), hostage. 

When they all stop for gas, the attendant makes small talk about seeing America while ogling Varla's breasts, and she replies, "You won't find it down there, Columbus!"  He tells them about a nearby ranch where an old disabled man and his musclebound and dimwitted son live, and when the women discover that the old man has some money, they decide to rob him.  Unfortunately the old man is as evil as these girls and it all goes badly for everyone involved.

None of the stars are anyone you have ever heard of.  Tura Satana and Haji were both exotic dancers before starring in this film - geez, that's a stretch.  Tura's idea of acting was to yell every line and I guess Haji's was to have an Italian accent, and not a very good one.

Meyer's films are cult classics mainly because he was one of the first to give soft porn films actual plots.  His films were also notable for snappy dialogue (see Varla's comment to the gas station attendant above), having a sense of humor, creative editing and big boobs.  Lots and lots of big boobs. 

Why it's a Must See: "The film enjoys it's place at the top of many cult lists in part because of its several inherent delights - creative and flashy editing, smart black-and-white cinematography, a jazzy score, and plenty of innuendo - and in part because it is a fascinating barometer of the shifts occurring during the 1960's, especially with respect to cinema itself."
--"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

John Waters has called this film the best movie ever made.  But then John Waters is John Waters.  Let's just say that this was the kind of movie that was fun to see at the drive-in back in the 1960's.  The women also have a feminist bent if you equate tough women beating up men with feminism, but it's really not anything you can take seriously. These characters are like something out of a pop art comic book.

Rosy the Reviewer says...all I can say is that this movie left me speechless, but barring a drive-in to go to, it might be fun to get some friends together and be speechless together.




***Book of the Week***




Dinner: Changing the Game by Melissa Clark (2017)


We go from the dinner from hell (see review above) to some heavenly dinner ideas. My new favorite cookbook!

"[This book is] designed to help you figure out what to make for dinner without falling back on what you've eaten before.  It's about giving you options, lots of options.  Are you a vegetarian or just a vegetable lover? I've got you covered.  A die-hard meat lover?  A fish enthusiast?  A pasta aficionado?  A culinary explorer ready to take on a challenge?  Or the kind of cook who wants to revel in the comforting and familiar, but with a twist...In these pages, it's all here for you."

And boy is it.  And I am a bit of all of those people that Clark describes.

Clark is a staff writer for the New York Times where she writes a column called "A Good Appetite."  She has put together some exciting and delicious recipes that will bring you back to this cookbook again and again.  Just randomly opening the book to a page led me to a recipe I wanted to try.  I'm going to try that again right now.

Mmm, "Japanese Omelet" highlighted by brown sugar, soy sauce and mirin served with rice and edamame. See? I'm going to make this for dinner tonight!

Beautifully illustrated, there are whole chapters devoted to chicken, meat (including a whole chapter on ground meat), tofu, fish and seafood, eggs, pasta and noodles, beans and legumes, rice and grains, pizzas and pies, salads and, dips and spreads, everything from Thai Lettuce Wraps to Seitan Enchiladas to Chilled Cucumber and Corn Soup.  No need to always have the same boring protein, a starch and a vegetable for dinner anymore.

Clark really has changed the game when it comes to dinner.

Rosy the Reviewer says... I haven't found a cookbook like this in ages, one where I want to try every recipe from cover to cover.




Thanks for reading!



See you next Friday 



for my review of  


"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri"  


 and


 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."

  

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to copy and paste or click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer

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). 





Friday, November 3, 2017

"Goodbye Christopher Robin" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Goodbye Christopher Robin" as well as the DVD "Beatriz at Dinner" and the documentary about Dana Carvey's ill-fated sketch comedy TV show "Too Funny to Fail," now streaming on Hulu.  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "The Seventh Victim."  The Book of the Week is "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI."]





Goodbye Christopher Robin


The little-known story behind the creation of "Winnie-the-Pooh."

In 2011, Winnie the Pooh was voted onto the list of icons of England, and in 2014, a British poll named "Winnie-the-Pooh" the favorite children's book of the last 150 years.  And yet little is known about its creator, A.A. Milne or the inspiration for the book that went on to become one of the most beloved childrens' books series of all time.  This film shows how the book came to be and sheds particular light on one of its main characters, young Christopher Robin (Will Tilston).

Alan Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) was already a successful author when he returned from serving in WW I.  He and his wife, Daphne (Margot Robbie), were the toast of London and enjoyed the perks of fame and society.  But he came back from the War with a bad case of PTSD, though it wasn't called that then.  Shell-shocked was the term but same thing.  If a balloon popped or a car back-fired, Milne was transported back to the horrors of war. 

In the meantime, Daphne and Alan had a son, something Daphne wasn't too thrilled about.  She didn't particularly care about giving birth nor did she want a son.  She wanted a daughter.  After all, she had purchased all of those pretty frocks.  More importantly, though, she never wanted to have to send her son off to war and wait for him to come back as she had with Milne.  But no matter.  The upper classes in Britain then didn't particularly live their lives around their children as we all do today.  In fact, a child was almost an afterthought, someone to have a bit of fun with but then trot off to the nanny.  So Olive, the nanny (Kelly MacDonald), who Billy dubbed Neu (again, not sure where the nickname came from) was hired and she and baby Christopher Robin lived happily together while Mummy and Daddy traveled and partied. Occasionally, Mummy would surprise Christopher with stuffed animals so he had a bear named Edward, a stuffed donkey and a tiger to keep him company.  See where this is going?

For some reason unexplained, Milne was called Blue, not only by Daphne but by Christopher Robin as well.  Christopher Robin was dubbed Billy Moon.  Not sure why they called him Billy, either, but the Moon part came from him not being able to pronounce Milne. The British seem to like nicknames.

As Billy grew, so did Milne's PTSD and his writing faltered. He decided he no longer wanted to write frivolous fun but something serious about the horrors of war.  He also decided he needed to get out London where the noise reminded him of the war, so the family and the nanny moved to the Ashdown Forest to a lovely 100 acre estate where Milne could wander in blissful silence. 

One day while out on a walk, Milne discovered that young Billy was following him.  Irritated at first because he liked wandering the forest alone and because, frankly, he didn't spend much time with his son, he softened when Billy helped him through one of his episodes.  Bees were buzzing and the sound took Milne back to the War where blowflies buzzed over the dead, but Billy, sensitive to his Dad's issues, explained that the sound was just honey bees buzzing around their honey.  That was the first step in father and son finding each other.

However, Daphne hated being out in the country where little was going on and hated it even more that Alan wasn't able to write thus limiting her social obligations.  She hated it so much that she decided to move back to London for awhile until Alan got himself together.  Coincidentally, Neu's mother was ill and she also left, leaving Milne to care for Billy by himself.  After some awkward conversations as the two got to know each other over breakfast, a breakfast where Milne realized he had no idea what his own little son liked to eat, the two began to bond over tea parties with the stuffed animals and walks with Billy and his stuffed bear.  One day Billy came into Milne's study and asked him to write a book for him. 

Milne, inspired by the tea parties and the walks with the stuffed bear, dashed off a little poem that Daphne got published and thus, Winnie-the-Pooh was born.

But the film doesn't stop there. 

This film is less about Pooh and more about the price of fame and the toll it took upon a young boy. 

As Milne wrote more books featuring Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyore and young Christopher Robin, and when it was discovered that there was a real Christopher Robin, everyone wanted to meet him.  Hundreds of fan letters arrived and Christopher's days were filled with teas and parties with important dignitaries.  Now he was a little character himself to be trotted out to perform and it took a toll on him and his relationship with his parents.

When what he had done to Billy finally dawned on Milne, he vowed he would never write any more books about him and his bear and he didn't.  He also sent Christopher Robin him off to boarding school thinking he was sheltering him from the glare of celebrity, but as with many young boys, especially someone like Billy, he was bullied at school and his life was a misery so when he came of age and had the opportunity to join the military and serve in WW II he took it.  Daphne's lifelong nightmare had come true.  And more nightmare was to come.

Older Billy had some issues about all of those Winnie the Pooh books and took the opportunity to tell his Dad just how miserable his books had made him. 

"I asked you to write a book for me, not about me!"  

This is the story of the creation of Winnie the Pooh but it's also a story of the price of fame and lost innocence.  Bring your hankies.

Now I am going to take a moment to say something you would probably never think I would ever say.  I have fallen in love with a child actor.  I know that I have softened my stance on child actors lately because I liked the kids in "It" and that young actor, Iain Armitage, who starred in "Our Souls at Night" and "Big Little Lies." I have come to realize it's not the kid actors that are obnoxious so much as it's the writers giving those kid actors obnoxious things to say.  Here I give credit to screenwriters Frank Cotrell Boyce and Simon Vaughn for writing a believable character who doesn't rattle off precocious comments to get a laugh and make us go awww.  Usually when that happens I go yuk. 

But I also have to give young Will Tilston props for making eight-year-old Christopher Robin come to life.  He is so damn cute I could hardly stand it and an amazing young actor.  I was thinking while watching him that he could very well get an Academy Award nomination for Best Support Actor.  I mean Tatum O'Neal was only ten when she won hers.  But I hope that doesn't happen.  I totally do not believe in giving Oscars to children.  No matter how good their performances are, they need to pay their dues. so though I am softening my stance on child actors, I won't go that far.  No Oscars should go to anyone under 25!  I could do a whole rant on that...but I won't.

Director Simon Curtis presents a beautiful golden world with the help of cinematographer Ben Smithard where the fictional Winnie the Pooh was born, but also the darker real life world of the creator and his son, Christopher Robin. 

I am a huge fan of Domhnall Gleeson, though he seemed a bit young for the older Milne, and you may recognize Kelly MacDonald from "Boardwalk Empire."  She is a lovely actress.  Margot Robbie does a good job of playing Daphne, who is really a bit of a cold fish.  She didn't want Alan to come in to see her after giving birth because she didn't want him to see her blubbering and in fact no blubbering was allowed by anyone in the house.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I loved this film.  I loved this film so much I cried.  No, actually I blubbered.  Sorry, Daphne.




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

On DVD




Beatriz at Dinner (2017)



When her car breaks down at a wealthy client's home, a holistic medicine practitioner is invited to attend an important dinner party and very early it becomes clear that she is a fish out of water.

Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a hard-working holistic medicine practitioner working at a cancer clinic and living in L.A.  After driving down to Newport Beach to attend to one of her wealthy clients, when she is ready to leave, her car won't start.  Kathy (Connie Britton), her client, invites her to stay for dinner, a dinner that is actually an important one for Kathy and her husband, Grant (David Warshovsky). 

They are entertaining Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), a billionaire developer whom they want to impress because, well, he's Grant's boss.  They and some other invited guests are all celebrating a successful business deal and everyone is gushing over Doug, laughing at his jokes and agreeing with everything he says.

Unfortunately, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished.  Kathy didn't know what she was doing by inviting Beatriz to dinner. You see, Beatriz is very New Age.  She's warm, a hugger and she's a liberal.  She is also a Mexican immigrant who is clearly not in the same economic bracket as her dinner mates and it isn't long before she can clearly see through the bull that is being thrown around at dinner where everyone is bragging about their wealth, how they were able to bypass regulations, and play the system in order to make money.  And Doug is a very uptight privileged bragging egotist who lacks self awareness and is very right wing (sound familiar)? 

Beatriz doesn't know how to play the game and frankly, she doesn't want to.  Her presence challenges the conscience of the social order.  She is the eyes and ears of the little people who aren't supposed to know what the 1% are up to.

First, Beatriz is basically ignored as the dinner progresses so, even though she doesn't usually drink, she helps herself to some wine.  And then more wine.  The guests are mostly chatting about clothes, money and gossiping about celebrities.  When Beatriz is brought into the conversation she talks about spirituality and saving the earth.  Uh...awkward.  And when she challenges Doug's ethics about some stuff he is doing in Mexico, things start to take a turn.  These people are not used to being challenged. Turns out Doug is also a big game hunter and brags about his kills, showing pictures to the group.  Everyone is very impressed.  Everyone except Beatriz.  She calls it disgusting and storms out of the room.

Kathy follows her.  She isn't mad especially when Beatriz apologizes and tells her about her bad week.  She works with dying kids, which takes a toll on her and one of her pet goats has died.  So Kathy tells her to go to bed.  Beatriz goes off to a bedroom but not before she sneaks a bottle of wine and smokes a doobie (she's on a roll now) and decides to do a little research on Doug on the computer.  Turns out Doug is even worse than he seemed at dinner.

So Beatriz goes back downstairs. Ruh-roh.

Directed by Miguel Arteta with a screenplay by Mike White, this film explores the cultural gap that exists between the rich and the poor, between Americans and immigrants from other countries, especially less prosperous countries. Kathy says to Beatriz, "I feel like I don't know you," to which Beatriz replies, "You don't know me."  Kathy thinks that she knows Beatriz because she meets with her regularly as a client and even introduced Beatriz to the dinner guests as a "friend of the family," because Beatriz had helped them through a cancer scare, but Kathy doesn't know anything about her. She never made the effort to go further than their client-caregiver relationship. 

Well-meaning people can sometimes be the worst because they think that being nice gives them a pass for the rest of their lives and the rest of the things they do.  Think about people who feel good about themselves for delivering Thanksgiving dinners to the needy on Thanksgiving but never "dirty their hands" the rest of the year or find out anything about the people they are helping. 

I talked about how much I admire Salma Hayek in my review of "How To Be a Latin Lover. My admiration stems from the fact that she chooses important projects that try to make a statement even when they might be small projects with small roles for her as in "Latin Lover," or a less glamorous role where she eschews make up to play a regular, hard-working woman as she does here.  This film is clearly Hayak's movie, make-up or no make-up.  She is mesmerizing, and she is not only an amazing actress, she is an amazing woman. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...an enjoyable but also important satire on our world today. 




Streaming on Hulu



Too Funny to Fail (2017)


With the talent behind Dana Carvey's 1996 TV sketch comedy series, "The Dana Carvey Show," how could it possibly have failed?

Well, it did, and this feature length documentary now streaming on Hulu is a testament to the fact that no matter how much talent there is behind a project, there is no guarantee it will resonate with the American public.

The failure of "The Dana Carvey Show" was one of the most spectacular failures in TV history despite the great comic minds involved.  I remember watching that show because I was a big Dana Carvey fan and f you watched "Saturday Night Live" back then, you probably were too.  Who wasn't a fan of The Church Lady, or of his George H.W. Bush impersonation, or of Wayne and Garth? 

The film begins with Dana talking about his influences growing up and shows his SNL audition ("Choppin broccoli..." - so funny.  If you have never seen it, here it is)







But watching his show I had no idea that his writers and other cast members included Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Robert Smigel and Louis C.K.  Smigel had been one of the writers on SNL and left when Dana did. Carell and Colbert were both at Second City and were recruited along with Louis C.K. who was going to be the head writer.  Robert Carlock and Charlie Kaufman rounded out the group. 

So with all of that talent, what could go wrong?

They all wanted to do "edgy topical comedy," like Monty Python, and because of that, Dana thought they would do better on HBO, but since HBO wasn't the behemoth it is today he was talked out of it. So it was going to be on ABC during primetime following "Home Improvement."  What better position could they be in?  What a mistake!

ABC thought they were getting The Church Lady and other characters that Dana had created on SNL.  Instead they got "Stupid Pranksters,"







and "Waiters who are Nauseated by Food."






But there were other edgier sketches: "Skinheads from Maine" and "Grandma the Clown," where the clown really was an old lady who couldn't do tricks very fast, she did them very, very slow---ly.

It was all just too much for middle America after watching the homespun "Home Improvement." I thought these sketches were really funny and I liked the show, but I don't think I am your typical American TV viewer nor do I have a typical sense of humor. I like edgy.

Anyway to make matters worse, right after the show was given the green light, Disney bought ABC.

The show failed within the first five minutes of its first show with a sketch about the nurturing nature of President Clinton, showing him with multiple breasts, breastfeeding a bunch of babies.  Six million people deserted the show in the first five minutes and the next day the reviews were savage and the show lasted a mere seven more episodes.

The participants weigh in:

Steve Carell talks about getting one fan letter for the show and then recognized the handwriting as his mother's.  Robert Smigel remembers creating the Ambiguously Gay Duo with Colbert and Carell as the voices of Ace and Gary. Colbert relates that he thought he would never work again. Dana told the cast and writers he was sorry for ruining their careers.

What really happened?

Written and directed by Josh Greenbaum, this movie attempts to figure it out.  It's not entirely successful, but it does show that no matter how much talent is attached to a project one can never completely gauge the taste of the American public.  Was Carvey, who is one of those comedians who is always on, be just too much for primetime TV?  Was the comedy too out there for a 1990's American public?  But to be frank, I don't think these guys were really into pleasing anyone but themselves.  They had a vision and they went with it.  And that vision failed.

But then we all know how it worked out:

Robert Carlock has since written some hugely successful TV shows and Charlie Kaufman went on to write the screenplay for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." 

The sketch with Colbert and Carell as the nauseated waiters led to both of them becoming a part of "The Daily Show" and we all know how their careers went after that!

Likewise Louis C.K. went on to comedy stand-up greatness and his own TV show.

Smigle's "Ambigulously Gay Duo" became a big hit later on SNL and he invented Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

And Dana?  Well he is still Dana Carvey.  He tours the country with his one man show and has appeared in films and continues to be over-the-top.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a fascinating look into television history and the early careers of some of today's biggest talents.





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





163 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?




The Seventh Victim (1943)


A young woman searches New York City for her missing sister and uncovers a satanic cult.

I didn't know that devil worship was a thing in the 1940's.  I learn something every day watching movies.

Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter) is at boarding school when she is called into the office by the principal and told that her tuition has not been paid by her sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks), who is her guardian, and no one has heard from her in over six months.  Worried, Mary decides that she must take leave of the school and go search for her sister.  As she gets ready to leave, the principal's assistant takes her aside and tells her not to come back.  It's nothing ominous.  She is basically telling her if she comes back she might never get out of there, just like her, and thus become a spinster.  Another thing about the 40's - a great fear of ending up a spinster.

Mary is young and naïve, so young and naïve in fact I was shocked she was able to just leave her school like that, but she has gumption, another 40's thing.  She heads to the big bad city all by herself. gets a room over an Italian restaurant and meets Grant, a lawyer who knows Jacqueline.  And guess what?  It's The Beav's Dad - a much younger Hugh Beaumont.  She also meets a Dr. Judd (Tom Conway) as well as Jason Hoag (Erford Gage), a strange young man who hangs out at the restaurant and professes to be a poet.  Dr. Judd is a dodgy psychiatrist who claims to have been treating Jacqueline.  His specialty is treating alcoholics though that's not the case with Jacqueline, but he warns Mary about the evils of alcohol in my favorite line from the film: 

"Dipsomania is rather sordid."

They all work together to find Jacqueline, who it turns out has gotten herself involved with a bunch of Satanists who want to kill her for revealing their existence.

Directed by Mark Robson and starring a very young Kim Hunter in her first film role, Hunter went on to win a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1952 for her role as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire," but as happens to so many actors and actresses, despite bursts of promise and fame such as an Oscar, Hunter never really gained superstardom.  After that Oscar, her career was mostly guest appearances on TV dramas and recurring roles in soap operas.

Why it's a Must See: "Perhaps the best of the run of terrific RKO horror films produced by Val Lewton in the 1940s. [This film] is a strikingly modern, poetically doom-laden picture...full of things that must have been startling in 1943 and are still unusual now: a gaggle of varied lesbian characters...[and] a heroine who comes to seem as calculating as the villains..."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Yes, that's true along with absolutely atrocious dialogue and major over-acting. I also take issue with this one actually being labeled a horror film. But Val Lewton produced this one, and he's the guy responsible for such horror classics as "I Walked with a Zombie" and "The Cat People (the 1942 version, not the 1982 remake)," and when I say classics, I mean the cult variety.  But the film is strangely hypnotic, and I could see some possible influences that turned up in "Psycho (there's a similar shower scene)" and "Rosemary's Baby."

That said, I have to digress for a moment. I feel a rant coming on.

There is a scene that made my librarian blood boil.  Grant goes to the library to find out what books two suspects had read and the librarian cheerfully, not only gives him the titles, but hands over the books.  Now people, I want to assure you that would never happen today.  Libraries protect your right to read and your right to privacy so do not let this film undermine your feelings about the integrity of libraries and librarians. No librarian will tell anyone what you are reading unless they present a warrant! There, rant over.

Rosy the Reviewer says...some of these older films don't hold up well today and this is no exception, but if you can suspend your disbelief, you can have some campy fun with this one.  Make some popcorn and invite some friends over! 
(b & w) 







***Book of the Week***






Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (2017)


In the 1920s, after oil was discovered on their land, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be mysteriously killed off.

When the white man came, Native Americans were eventually shunted off to parts of the U.S. that white Americans didn't want.  Such was the case with the Osage of Oklahoma except they struck oil on their inhospitable land and became rich.  White Americans were not happy that the Osage became wealthy, especially since they didn't consider them real Americans nor smart enough to handle their own money.  So because of that, the government appointed white guardians to manage the money of many of the wealthy Osage who weren't considered competent, thus setting the stage for a full-blown conspiracy that ended in murder.

The family of Mollie Burkhart became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances and those who dared investigate the killings were also killed. 

As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four known cases, the FBI took up the case. The FBI was new to the murder investigation and so the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to agent and former Texas Ranger, Tom White, to help unravel the mystery and together with one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau, the agents exposed one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.  Their investigation has so many twists and turns, this book reads like a mystery novel, yet it's all true and like any great true crime book, the truth is stranger than fiction.
   

Meticulously researched, Grann has uncovered new evidence and believes that hundreds of Osage died as part of this conspiracy, not just the known 24, and that the extent of the conspiracy and much of the mystery will never be solved.

"In cases where perpetrators of crimes against humanity elude justice in their time, history can often provide at least some final accounting, forensically documenting the murders and exposing the transgressors.  Yet so many of the murders of the Osage were so well concealed that such an outcome is no longer possible.  In most cases, the families of the victims have no sense of resolution.  Many descendants carry out their own private investigations, which have no end. They live with doubts, suspecting dead relatives or old family friends or guardians -- some of whom might be guilty and some of whom might be innocent."

And that made me mad.

I am mad because of what Native Americans have had to endure, the brutal prejudice that existed against Native Americans and which still probably exists today, and the crimes against them that many white men perpetrated.  And this book made me mad because the Osage were not only treated like second-class citizens but callously murdered so white men could take over their land rights. I feel the same way when I see movies and read books about the Holocaust and about slavery.  I get really, really mad and ashamed that humans can treat other humans so badly.  And yet I read and I watch because we must never forget our shameful past so that we never repeat it.

Rosy the Reviewer says...this is a true crime story, but it's also a history of the FBI and sheds light on a shameful part of America's past. 
(This book is a finalist in nonfiction for the 2017 National Book Award to be announced November 15.)

Thanks for reading!


See you next Friday 


for my review of  



"A Bad Moms Christmas"  


 and


 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).