Except for one documentary watched on PBS (a 3.5) and one
old timer streamed from Netfllix (a 1.5), the movies on this list were all
obtained from the library. Some newer ones had been on my hold list, some others
were found on the shelf and a few were chosen because the library only has one
or two copies left. I guess it is time to start working on the Netflix queue,
either trying what is already there or finding something more appealing; I have
only streamed one old dog in the last month. The ratings spread on this list, from
top to bottom, is about as wide as it gets.
Here is what I have watched since I posted my last list.
[The ratings I give are on my own number system which is explained at the link
on the sidebar].
Boy A – 2007
(3.7). An excellent script, fine direction and good acting make this British
movie a winner. A young boy who was sent to prison for his involvement in a
violent crime is now a young man who has served his sentence and is being
released under a program to give him a new identity, similar to what is done in
the witness protection programs. But the protection here is from people who
want to harm the offender in further retribution for the crime he committed. On
his release he is mentored by a corrections official with a drinking problem
and a broken family of his own, but who is very proud of the job he has done in
turning the boy’s life around. As we follow the boy renting a room, getting a
job and getting a girlfriend, it is hard to warm up to him because he is so
quiet and awkward. But then we start to realize how everything he does on the
outside is strange and new to him, because he was only a boy when he went to
prison. Movies too often fail to tell the back story or have too many or too
few subplots, but this one wisely leaves out mostly all the back story, except
for periodic brief flashbacks to the developments leading up to the crime, and
smartly excludes all subplots except the relevant involvement of the
corrections official and his son. This film is about this young man trying to
start a new life now, not about what he did in the past or why he did it. By
the end of the movie we realize that this man is just who he is, but his past
will always be part of him, the same as we are who we are and our past will
always be part of us.
The House I Live In
– 2012 (3.1). Voted best documentary at Sundance, this movie tells the story of
the failed American “War on Drugs”, and the toll it takes not just on those
incarcerated and their families, but also on society and our institutions as a
whole. Interviews with prisoners, jailers, police, judges, and other involved
officials, activists and academics are combined with documentary footage to
establish the faulty foundation of the war, the financial incentives that keep
it alive and the unfairness and injustice that are an inherent part of the
system. More positive hope for successful change would have been nice to show,
but the fact is there is not much out there. This film is another step in the
right direction.
Flight – 2012
(3.0). Denzel Washington plays a top notch commercial pilot with a drug and
alcohol problem in this riveting drama. Fate, or some would say God, catches up
with him in the form of defective plane and only his extraordinary skill,
though possibly impaired by his indulgences, has the chance to avoid death for
all aboard. On a very personal level, the pilot struggles with his chronic
denial of addiction in a way that is powerful without going over the top.
Though a bit long, the script is tight, the direction very good and the acting
of Denzel excellent as always. Speaking of over the top acting, I am getting
tired of John Goodman popping up in so many minor roles as larger than life
eccentrics.
In a Better World
-2012 (3.0). Vengeance, retribution and forgiveness are the subjects of this
Oscar winning Danish drama about a bullied adolescent son of separated parents
and his new friend who is angry with his father over the recent cancer death of
his mother. The father of the victim of the bullying is a volunteer doctor to
refugees in Africa, where he sees firsthand the horrors of violence. The doctor
father tries to show the boys that it is better to turn the other cheek and
turn away rather than engage in retaliation which can escalate, but that lesson
seems too sophisticated for them to accept. The story challenges our own
feelings about seeking payback.
Playing for Change –
2005 (3.0). I pulled this off the library shelf to view again because I like to
listen to the music played and sung by various groups in multiple countries
around the world. The songs are about love and peace and the documentary
technique involves having the musicians listen to recordings of music by other
artists while they play along, which shows the connection across places and
cultures and the universality of the themes. The movie is extensively composed
of the musical numbers with a little explanation of how the project came to be
and some scenes of the artists before and after recording. There are some
special features on the DVD giving more information on the filming itself.
Viridiana – 1961
(3.0). Spanish leftist film maker Luis Bunuel directed this story of a young
novice nun paying a visit to her benefactor uncle before taking her final vows.
The woman does not really know her uncle, nor does she know his illegitimate
son who enters the movie later on, but they both present obstacles to her
vocation, as does her attempt to minister to the needs of the local beggars.
Condemned at the time as sacrilegious and blasphemous, the film holds up quite
well, having been shot in a straightforward way and covering simple themes of
religion, morality, vocation and charity which still resonate. Though a bit of
a surrealist, Bunuel does not indulge that style in this movie, though there
are plenty of intriguing images. The Croterion DVD has some interesting
documentary features about Bunuel, including an interview of him.
Incendies – 2010
(2.8). French-Canadian brother and sister twins learn after the death of their
mother that they have a brother and that their father, whom they were told was
dead, is in fact alive. Their mother left a death wish that they find their
brother and father, which sends them off on a journey to an unnamed war ravaged
country in the Middle East. Using flashbacks to interweave the back story of
the mother is confusing at first, particularly because the daughter and the
young mother of the flashbacks look alike, and the initially slow pacing and
overall length of this Oscar nominated movie make one impatient. But as the
nature of the mysteries becomes more apparent, interest in finding the answers
increases. A tighter script would have made a better movie.
My Name is Khan –
2010 (2.8). Bollywood comes to California to make this drama about an Indian
Muslin immigrant man with Asperger’s who falls for an Indian Hindu immigrant
single mom in San Francisco. Hostility after 9/11 leads to complications
setting the man on a journey around the country. Too long and uneven, with a
story about love and also about prejudice and intolerance, the movie has its
touching moments but also some hokey ones. Maybe it would have been better to
make two films, one about the love story and one about the prejudice.
The White Ribbon
– 2009 (2.8). Long, slow and in black and white, this German film was a Golden
Palm winner, telling a story of mysterious criminal acts committed in a German
village on the brink of WWI. Told years later by the school teacher who left
for the war and never returned, the tale involves parents and children across
the social spectrum in a time and place of rigid patriarchy. Filmed with great
style, the movie seems to be a mystery inviting determination of who is guilty,
but ultimately turns out to be more an invitation to ponder who we are inclined
to suspect and why, and to realize that, contrary to the lack of color on the screen, guilt is
not always a matter of black and white.
The Crusades:
Crescent & the Cross – 2005 (2.8). This History Channel documentary
covers the three crusades by European Christians to take Jerusalem from Muslim
control. Historical reenactments with CGI, interviews with scholars,
contemporary narration and reenacted readings by historians of that time are
the techniques used to tell the story of these wars in a straightforward
chronological manner. The parallels to the conflicts in the middle east today
are inescapable.
Diary of a
Chambermaid – 1964 (2.8). This version of the Mirbeau novel was made by
Luis Bunuel in his straightforward style, playing off the differences between
the master and servant classes while at the same time showing how personal
strengths and weaknesses know no class bounds. The plot, though playing like a
mystery, is not intended to wrap the story up nicely, but is rather a vehicle
for presenting the gray aspects of life.
Exporting Raymond
– 2010 (2.7). When the creator of the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” is
invited to Russia to work with TV producers there to develop a Russian version
of the show, he decides to make a documentary of his experience. The result
includes brief glimpses of his parents, who were the inspiration for the
parents of Raymond, and lots of time in a glum and, except for the colorful
onion dome churches, bleak Moscow of rundown buildings, oppressive executives
and overworked production people, Our hero struggles with the cultural
differences that almost make the style of Raymond seem unworkable in Russia,
and makes a few friends in the process.
Talk to Me – 2007
(2.6). Petey Greene was a DJ in prison who became very popular on local radio
in Washington DC by profanely talking truth to the people in the late 1960s.
This biopic starts out OK in showing him at the end of his prison time and
through the rise of his career, but once the script gets to the point where his
manager pushes him to go too far, the script falls apart as it rushes to the
end. The high point is when Petey calms Washington after Dr. King was
assassinated. A typically good performance by Don Cheadle overshadows the rest
of the cast, the production has a fairly good look and the direction has some
weak spots, but overall it is worth watching and listening to the period R
& B music.
Diary of a
Chambermaid – 1946 (1.5). After watching the 1964 Bunuel movie of this
classic nove, I noticed Netflix had the 1946 Renoir version available for
streaming, so I watched it for comparison, even though I knew it was not very
good. In fact, it is a terrible bowdlerization of the story presented sometimes
as a farce and sometimes as a ridiculous attempt at melodrama, the characters
distorted to the point of meaningless drivel and all the elements of social
commentary either omitted or trivialized. This Hollywood sound stage
monstrosity is the worst movie Renoir ever directed. Burgess Meredith wrote the
script, produced the movie and hammed up one of the roles, while his wife of
the time, Paulette Goddard, [third marriage for both] played the lead. No
wonder Meredith and Goddard soon divorced and tried the marriage game soon
again.
Wreck-it Ralph –
2012 (DNF). My viewing partner who likes Disney animated movies better than I
do bailed out of this one after about half an hour, and there was still more
than an hour to go. I don’t understand who the target audience is for a $165
million movie like this, but Disney knows what they are doing financially,
because this film will make them a profit. I fast forwarded through the rest of
the movie confirming it would have been an ordeal for me to view it at normal
speed. The little girl character had a cute personality.