My Netflix queue is getting spotty, so it may be time to start checking out some library DVDs again. Netflix is especially slow on sending new releases, so maybe I should look into the Redbox kiosks for those.
La Buche – 1999. Often I find a movie is not what I expected. It does not help when the Netflix summary is wrong, as it was with this movie. I expected a Christmas Eve dinner from hell as three grown daughters tried to reunite their parents after 25 years of divorce. But this 3.3 movie was more like one of my favorites, Secrets and Lies, telling the stories of the divorced couple and their children by letting us in on the truth, while still keeping portions secret from each of them. Dean Martin crooning Christmas standards on the soundtrack added a touch of irony, as this family dealt with love/hate issues.
Brothers – 2009. This 3.2 remake of a Danish film tells the story of the effect on a marine of acute stress from military service in Afghanistan, and what it did to his wife, young daughters and brother and their relationships with each other. The two short special features are worthwhile and should be watched after viewing the movie. Though I do not quite remember it, my records show I watched the 2005 Danish version the year after it was made and rated it 2.7.
Precious – 2008. This 3.2 movie shows us the depressingly oppressive life of an obese black girl who is verbally and sexually abused and has been passed over by the educational system, but who has an inner spirit that keeps her going in spite of it all, with encouragement from a motivated teacher in an alternative school program. Newcomer Gabourey Sibide does an excellent job in the title role, but Mo’Nique, who plays her horrendous mother, absolutely inhabits the nasty character, resulting in a much deserved best supporting actress Oscar.
Tokyo Sonata – 2008. When the father in this Japanese film loses his job, he does not tell his wife and sons and pretends like he still is going to work. We seem to have a movie of social commentary on the effect of economic change on the people of Tokyo, but then this 3.2 film also begins to show us what is going on in the lives of the man’s wife and sons and we see that while they are a family, they also are individuals and that they each have their own secrets about struggling to find out who they are and what they are going to do with the rest of their life.
Mademoiselle – 2001. In this modest French film, Sandrine Bonnaire attends a company conference out of town and is given a significant promotion. She seems comfortable with her professional life and apparently is happy with her husband and children, but as a colleague takes early retirement she begins to reflect. A chance involvement with the improve troupe that entertained at the conference provides an opportunity for a lark. This 3.1movie made me wonder how we can be sure what is a lark and what is reality.
Still Crazy – 1998. This British comedy finds a 1970s rock band which had disbanded in disagreement reuniting for a reunion tour 20 years later, with all members being more the worse for wear. Some enjoyable humor and passable music make up for the lack of much drama in this film which I rate a 3.
Rebecca – 1940. Hitchcock’s first film made in America is his only movie to win the Academy Award. Adapted from a Daphne Du Marier novel, this is a Victorian gothic tale moved into 1940. The direction is as good as expected and the acting holds up fairly well, but overall the dated feel is enough for me to hold it to a 3 rating. The DVD special features include some interesting materials.
The Yarn Princess – 1994. A mentally slow but very insightfully loving mother of six boys depends on her husband for practical organization in this 2.9 made for TV movie. But when schizophrenia brings him down, the welfare system decides she cannot cope and starts farming her sons out to foster care. Enter the ACLU to get her kids back home and obtain the help she needs to get to carry on her job. This film concentrates on the heroine and her relationship with the boys, and also on the interaction between the boys. The legal parts are abbreviated. Jean Smart, a fellow UW alum whose TV work is unfamiliar to me, did a fairly good job of provoking sympathy after the initial bemusement stage. The boy actors were a little better than the dialogue they were given.
Everybody’s Fine – 2009. Recently widowed Robert DeNiro is disappointed all four of his kids bailed out on a visit to him at the last minute, so he decides to travel and surprise each of them. We learn he retired from a life of steady blue collar work and that he always pushed his kids to succeed. He learns something about the lives of his kids he did not know and a little more about how to relate to them, but none of it adds up to more than a 2.8 rating. This is a remake of an Italian film of the same name from 1990, which may not have been any better and is not available at Netflix.
Going in Style – 1979. This film gave three old pros, George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg a chance to play together and commit a bank heist for excitement and some extra money to lift them out of their boring life on small fixed incomes. The movie had some comedy at first, then some pathos with plot, but nothing of enough consequence for me to raise it above 2.8. It was a little hard to find on DVD for a while, but then Netflix got it. George was 83 when he made this picture, and lived to be 100. Art was only 63 and lived to 85. Lee was 78 and died three years after the movie was made.
A Woman Called Moses – 1978. Cicely Tyson gave a typically heroic performance in this bio pic of Harriet Tubman’s work on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves. The film was not especially dated, but the print was not cleaned up for the DVD. The narration by Orson Welles is typically pompous, but fortunately sparse. The bravery of Harriet and those who helped runaway slaves escape is inspiring. This 2.8 three hour film is a fairly good exposure to the subject.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser – 1975. This eccentric German film by a young Werner Herzog was a vehicle for making commentary about society and established authority, both in the early 19th Century time period of the film and also by causing us to realize that not that much has changed in the meantime. The unlikely commentator is Kaspar, a man who was kept in total isolation until adulthood and then exposed to the world almost as if he were from another planet. The 2.8 movie starts a bit simplistic but becomes more interesting as Kaspar becomes more observant and conversational. The wide eyed Kaspar of the early film reminds me of Johnny Carson’s skits of the deer hunter being interviewed on TV and frozen in the camera lights.
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