Almost All from the Library

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.