Europe on Top

 

The DVD holds from the library are starting to come through on some of the movies from the most recent awards time. Six American ones are included in this list. But the top three movies rated here are from Europe. Thankfully many good foreign films and documentaries are available on Netflix streaming and DVDs from the library, because the newer Hollywood movies coming to DVD have not been very impressive.

 

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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

The Broken Circle Breakdown – 2012 (3.1). The male lead in this Belgian drama wrote and acted in the play on which this Oscar nominated movie is based; he plays a man who idolizes the hope that is America and he leads a Bluegrass band which sings in English. The female lead is a Belgian actress and singer who plays a tattoo artist who hooks up with the male romantically and joins the band as a singer. The young director is a friend of the male lead and he has made a seamless film flowing smoothly between the present and the past, drama and music; and happiness and tragedy. This is ultimately a very sad film about the difficulty of struggling with grief, whether as a spiritual person or not. It is also another of those films in which we care enough about the characters that we want them to get counseling to help them through their problems even if that could result in a film of less impact.

 

 Philomena – 2013 (2.9). In 1950s Ireland a single father entrusts his daughters to the nuns to educate and when she comes up pregnant he relinquishes her to their care. After a traumatic delivery the boy child is put up for adoption and the mother forced to work to pay for her care. Fifty years later, the retired mother decides to renew her search to find out what happened to her son, aided by an established journalist on a career downturn. Inspired by this true story, the movie takes some liberties to make the journalist a former Catholic who is now an atheist, thereby creating dramatic tension with the mother, wonderfully played by Judi Dench. The search becomes a bit of a road trip story mixed with mystery as all moves along at good pace, even though, or perhaps because, the characters of the woman’s daughter, who never knew about the existence of her brother, and the wife of the journalist, who seemed to also have some dramatic tension with her husband, get left behind quite early.

 

Romantics Anonymous – 2010 (2.9). Short and sweet, like the chocolates made by the characters portrayed, this French romantic comedy pairs a couple who are each painfully shy emotional types getting counseling for their problems. Their paths cross when she goes to work for his failing chocolate factory. The actress Isabelle Carre has that plain every girl quality of some of the better old Hollywood films. The man is less appealing but still sympathetic and their chemistry seems to work enough to make the audience root for their togetherness.

 

Enough Said – 2013 (2.8). In this romantic comedy about a middle aged divorced couple who hook up, but then the woman gets some inside negative information on the man from his ex-wife, the female writer-director does a good job of capturing both the fun and the awkwardness of making new connections after being divorced. It helps that the couple are played by James Gandolfini in his last full role before his death and Julia Louis-Dreyfus who finally gets a chance to add some dramatic work to her always great comedic talent.

 

 Lee Daniels’ The Butler – 2013 (2.8). One comment at IMDb rhetorically asks the same question I have: Why is Lee Daniels' name above the title … after only one other film we've heard of? He did not even write the script for this fictional story (“inspired” by a true one) about a White House butler who served eight Presidents. The good: the acting of Forest and Oprah; the poignancy of the archival and reenactment footage of pivotal events in American history during those times; the quirky accuracy of Cusack as Nixon. The bad: distracting appearances by famous actors playing Presidents, particularly Robin Williams as Ike; not being able to go deeper into historical events despite the length of the movie; never quite bringing the inner conflicts of the butler more to the surface. Expecting this to be more of a sermon about the son of the butler failing to appreciate and respect him, it was a pleasant surprise to find the father son failures cut both ways.

 

Nebraska – 2013 (2.8). Capturing boring small town mentality, what a life of alcoholism can wreak and the disconnected dynamics of marginally functional families are things this drama does well. The premise of an old duffer actually believing he has won the prize mentioned in the magazine marketing letter he received is a bit preposterous but with this man in this stage of life in this part of the world, it actually works. Anecdotes about the old man are periodically delivered, but somehow they disappointingly fail to produce a sympathetic understanding of who he really is.

 

The Great Beauty – 2013 (2.8). In some ways this Oscar winner for best foreign film harkens back 50 years to La Dolce Vita, examining the decadent life of Rome through the eyes of a writer. In the older film the writer was early middle age, while the new film features a man entering retirement years. Based on the DVD interview with the serious minded director and co-writer, the movie is not really as deep as some might think, but rather an intimate character study of the old writer who is beginning to see that he wasted lots of his life with partying and is overdue to write that great second novel after forty years. The lush cinematography and active lighting techniques are very effective, as is the acting, but don’t expect much of a story.

 

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage – 2010 (2.8). Starting right out of high school, the Canadian rockers documented in this movie have been challenging their own talents for decades. Archival footage, interviews with fans, critics and admiring musicians are the components of the film. But the enduring friendship of the three men and their mutual desire to challenge themselves to always improve and explore is what sets them apart.

 

The Bletchley Circle (Season Two) – 2013 (2.7). The former code breaker women continue their self-appointed detective work in two more two part episodes, with one character out and a new one in, but now the novelty factor of their war time work is worn off and it has become just another detective show.

 

Prisoners – 2013 (2.7). This overlong thriller about the disappearance of two young girls starts off fairly believable and intriguing enough to hold attention, but then the characters start to deteriorate in authenticity and an increasing number of holes begin to appear in the script as the story continues. The chief investigator increasingly proves to be the typical American cinematic loner cop who does not follow the rules but gets results. Central characters quickly become wacky under the pressure and before we know it we have several nut cases to suspect. Eventually we realize the extent of interconnection and then wait for the movie to catch up and conclude. These thrillers always seem to prove that playing by the rules may actually be the best course, and one personal rule for me is probably that thrillers are usually a waste of time.

 

Rush – 2013 (2.7). Ron Howard always makes a well-crafted film. This story of an intense battle in the 1970s between the two top Formula One racers captures a couple years of that battle and strikes a good balance between race track action and the personal lives of the men. Unfortunately neither side of that balance is well enough developed. We do not really learn much about the racing beyond the two men, nor about the two men beyond the racing. The Austrian racer in particular seemed a deeper man deserving deeper treatment.

 

Mildred Pierce – 2011 (2.2). Starting with unsympathetic people plodding through a muddled script, this HBO miniseries remake of the 1945 classic wastes a lot of time at the beginning and then rushes to its end. Production values are high in capturing the look of 1930s Los Angeles, but there are too many shots of the vintage automobiles just going from one scene to the next. Thankfully the profanity has been kept true to the time rather than the usual HBO anachronistic transporting of current foul mouth jargon; but the typical HBO full nudity is included early. Full spoiler written intros to each of the five parts are quite helpful, particularly when combined with the fast forwarding DVD feature.

 

The Wolf of Wall Street – 2013 (1.2). One and a half hours of self-indulgent libidinous debauchery about a stockbroker making money by cheating clients is followed by another one and a half hours of the same as the FBI close in on him in this useless drivel of a movie. Based on a book by the crook, one wonders why did anyone buy the book and why in the world was a film made of it. Once again, be thankful for DVD fast forwarding. Incredibly, this was nominated for awards and was supposedly a comedy.

 

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Romantics Anonymous

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage