Once again the BBC series Last Tango in Halifax comes out on top. Also, the Oscar winner for best picture is beaten by an old TV telling of the same story. Half this list were Netflix streamed.
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.
Last Tango in Halifax
(Season Two) – 2013 (3.2). The uniqueness of this series understandably
dissipates some in the second season, with the continual plot developments not
having quite the impact they did in the first year. The central cast is still
top-notch and the writing is very good, but somehow there is a slight tinge of
letdown. The six episodes went really fast and left the impression that not
much story progress had been made, in spite of a lot of characters always on
the go, but then a look back on the episode summaries proved that quite a bit of
story development had transpired. There is an urge to know more about the past
of these characters, which we are slowly being told. Perhaps reflection on the
past getting lost in the bustle of the present and the uncertainty of the
future is what the writers intend.
Half the Sky –
2012 (3.0). NY Times reporter Nicholas Kristof leads a documentary film crew to
points in Africa and Asia to cover stories that are part of his book on the
oppression of women and young girls. The movie shows the conditions the women
face and what some activist women are doing to liberate and empower the
oppressed. Female celebs accompany Kristof to lend their fame to publicizing
the plights. The stories about sex traffic, prostitution, female genital
mutilation and lack of worthy employment and educational access are by nature
depressing. Deep seated cultural failings countenance such gender oppression,
but the activist women are inspiring and many of the young girls they help are
equally impressive.
One Big Hapa Family
– 2010 (3.0). Made by a young Canadian film maker who is the son of a
Japanese mother and white father, this documentary is about the Japanese
immigrants to British Columbia and how attitudes have changed toward racial
intermarriage. When his grandparents came over, intermarriage was unheard of,
but among the generation of the grandchildren over 90% marry interracially. His
movie is well made mixing live action and animation as he interviews his
extended family. The largely unknown story is told about how Japanese were
treated north of the border, especially during WWII. This version is the 49
minute TV version, but there is also an 85 minute theatrical version.
Solomon Northup’s Odyssey – 1984 (3.0). Shown on American Playhouse and directed by Gordon
Parks, this version of the “12 Years a Slave” story benefits from a much better
script than the 2013 movie in which the story line and characters often were
confusing. The Parks version draws characters more clearly, has much more
meaningful conversations between Solomon and the other slaves and includes
scenes of the ongoing efforts of Solomon’s wife and Henry Northup to find and free
him. The presence of violence and sex is not emphasized at the expense of having
time and attention diverted from Solomon struggling to keep his own focus on
obtaining his freedom while also mutually sharing feelings with slaves who have
never been free. Much more clearly in this earlier version, we feel how on
obtaining his release Solomon is torn between wanting to forget the 12 year
nightmare as he reunites with his family and feeling obliged to do something to
help the enslaved people he has left behind.
The Trials ofMuhammad Ali – 2013 (2.9). Emphasizing his legal fight for conscientious
objection exemption from the military draft, this documentary about Ali covers
familiar ground but also manages to find fresh input in the form of interviews
with the last surviving member of the group of eleven Louisville businessmen
who guided his early professional boxing career, his first wife, his brother
and a former Clerk for a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
giving insight into how the ultimate unanimous Court decision in favor of Ali
was fashioned.
Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning – 2014 (2.8). Shown on
American Masters on PBS, this documentary about the celebrated photographer was
made by her granddaughter and covers her personal life as well as her career.
Sterling examples of her photos are included as expected, along with archival
footage and interviews with some of her descendants. There is much footage of
Dorothea working in her dying months trying to pick photos for a show of her
life’s work to be displayed in NYC at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.
Missing from the movie is commentary from other photographers and critics
explaining the technical aspects of her work and what they contributed to her
art.
Big Men – 2013
(2.8). The young American woman who spent six years making this cinema verite
style documentary shown on PBS P.O.V. scored some good inside access in
following a Dallas oilman and a Ghanaian entrepreneur who hook up and convince
an American capital firm to contract with the oil ministry of Ghana to develop
an offshore oil field for the benefit of the people of Ghana. Many of the
Ghanaians were educated in America and speak excellent English, but we also see
aspects of the tribal cultural structure of the country. The contract gets
embroiled in election politics in Ghana and the film follows this process to
conclusion. As a contrast, though sometimes distracting, the film also covers
turmoil over oil in Nigeria, where corruption has kept the revenues from getting
to the Nigerian people and young protestors engage in sabotage of pipelines.
Mortified Nation
– 2013 (2.8). A few years back someone got the idea that reading excerpts from
personal journals and diaries written in earlier years could help self-discovery,
and it could be especially cathartic if done in front of an empathetic
audience. The idea was put into practice and captured in this documentary
showing live performances and interviews with participants and the people
behind the idea.
Ai Weiwei: NeverSorry – 2012 (2.8). The film maker followed the Chinese activist artist and
his entourage quite closely in making this documentary, but we never got very
far into understanding his artistic vision or his vision for a more open
Chinese society. Instead we saw a continual Twitter user who uses his iconic
status to take shots (literally and figuratively) at the Chinese government and
a man who on the personal side does not seem to be very caring toward people as
individuals.
Radio Unnameable
– 2012 (2.8). This straightforward documentary tells the story of a man who has
worked for fifty years broadcasting a late night show on FM radio in NYC.
Interviews, archival footage and audio clips are the vehicles, set against the
changing times.
The Scapegoat –
2012 (2.7). This slow starting drama about a rich scoundrel in early 1950s
England who runs into his perfect lookalike is based on a Du Maurier story. The
scoundrel takes advantage of the lookalike by tricking him into taking his
place while the scoundrel disappears. As we finally get the drift of all that
the man has walked into, we become interested enough to stay around and see how
he handles it and how it ends.
12 Years a Slave
– 2013 (2.6). The story of Solomon Northup being kidnapped in 1841 and held as
a slave in the South is a very dramatic one. Surely his book written in 1853
was intended to aid the abolitionist movement. Judging by the script, the
purpose in turning it into a movie 160 years later seems to have been limited
to reaffirming the abolitionist message. Maybe there is an ongoing need to
remind Americans, especially in the South, of the horrors of slavery, but the
drama of the Northup story has so much more to offer than was delivered by this
script. Whether in the book or not, this story cries out for so many things
that were not included in the movie, like more background on Northrup and his
family before the abduction, efforts made by his family and friends to find
him, his more intimate communications with other slaves, and his attempts to
employ his intelligence in maneuverings with slaveholders and overseers. The
emphasis in the movie seems to have been more in getting the look of things
right, rather than providing characters and relationships of much dimension.
15 to Life: Kenneth’sStory -2013 (2.6). The issue of life sentences for minors convicted of
crimes other than murder is a worthwhile subject for a documentary.
Unfortunately this movie about a 15 year old boy in Florida who is eleven years
into serving four consecutive life sentences for accompanying an armed adult
robber does not do the best job presenting the issues. The concentration is on
a resentencing hearing mandated by US Supreme Court decision and we do see some
of the proceeding as it took place. But we do not know what we did not see of
the hearing and do not get much strategy discussion from volunteer counsel for
the prisoner. There are some good interviews with the boy himself and some
revealing exposure to his born again drug addict mother and a smattering of
other input, but some key elements seem omitted, like any word from the public
defender on the boy’s trial. Kenneth has been dealt several bad cards,
including his no-show father, addicted mother, exploitation by career adult
criminal; living in Florida, questionable public defender representation,
marginal resentencing counsel, and unusually unsympathetic judge. This film
does not do much to help his poor hand.
The Revisionaries
– 2012 (2.6). A partisan elected board
of Texans periodically reviews and revises standards for textbooks used in that
State and since it is so large, the books sold there are very likely to be the
ones that the publishers sell throughout the United States. In this documentary
we see the dismaying process at play as fundamentalist Christian board members
narrow mindedly alter science and social studies books to reflect their
personal beliefs rather than to provide the most accurate learning materials.
Valiant efforts to prevent the desecration of textbooks is also shown, but the
film is sometimes hard to follow and spends too much time on following two
particular board members rather than exploring the issues in more depth, such
as more extensive interviews with publishers and inclusion of examples of
better processes used in other States.
The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though
some of the streaming rights may now have expired):
Half the Sky
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Radio Unnameable
Mortified Nation
The Scapegoat
The Revisionaries
